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FENRIS, THE WOLF 



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FENRIS, THE WOLF 



A TRAGEDY 



BY 



PERCY MACKAYE 

AUTHOR OF " THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS " 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1905 

All rights reserved 



UBRARY of OONQRESS 


I wo Copies rtoceiveu 


APR 21 19U5 


OwiyrigHi tdtry 






Copyright, 1905, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1905. 



NorbJOoB ilwgg 

J. S. Cashing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



TO 

NORMAN HAPGOOD 
CRITIC AND FRIEND 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 

The invocation of Ingimund to Odin, on page 38, 
is adapted from Fragments of a Spell Song, preserved 
as an insertion in the Great Play of the Wolsungs, 
and to be found, both original and translation, in the 
Corpus Poeticiim Boreale of Vigfusson and Powell, 
Oxford, 1883. 

For dramatic reasons, various liberties have been 
taken by the writer with those elements of this play 
which are drawn from Scandinavian mythology. For 
example, according to mythology, the Fenris-wolf is 
the offspring, not of Odin, but of Loki ; the wolf and 
Baldur are not brothers ; no mention is made of the 
wolf's Pack. Moreover, in the Old Icelandic utter- 
ances of the Pack — for purposes of sound merely — 
a preterite form has twice been used for a present 
tense, as in Ulfr sofrtathi, "the wolf sleepeth." 

Where authenticity, however, has harmonised with 
the dramatic idea, it has equally been the writer's aim. 

Cornish, N.H., March, 1905. 



CHARACTERS 



Of the Prologue 
ODIN 
BALDUR 
THOR 
LOKI 
FENRIS 

FENRIS'S PACK 
FREYJA 

Of the Play 

INGIMUND, Priest of Odin 
EGIL, a Hunter 
ARFI, a Dwarf, his brother 
YORUL, liegeman of Egil 
ROLF, liegeman of Egil 
ERIC, liegeman of Egil 
WULDOR, liegeman of Arft, 
A LITTLE BOY 

THORDIS, daughter of Ingimund and priestess of 
Odin''s temple 

FRIDA, one of her Virgins 
A LITTLE GIRL 

Folk, Priests, Virgins, Children 



SCENES 

THE PROLOGUE. The crater of a volcano ] dawn. 

ACT FIRST. Scene I. The rune-stone of Odin^ outside a 

tribal temple ; morning. 
Scene II. EgiVs lodge in the forest', tow- 
ard twilight. 

ACT SECOND. Scene I. A prison chantber ; day . 
Scene II. The same; night. 

ACT THIRD. A forest glade; the pool of 

Freyja; early morning. 

ACT FOURTH. The rune-stone again ; sunset. 

Time and Place 

The Age of Northern Mythology ; Iceland. The incidents of 
the play are conceived as taking place within the cycle of 
a year. 



THE PROLOGUE 



THE PROLOGUE 

Foreground — a frozen crater 

At back, a cavern. Overhanging this, at left and back, 

snow-cnisted cliffs, partly bared by the winds, stand out 

against the stars. 
On one of these, Odin seated ; on his shoulders, two ravens^ 

Beneath him, in the crater and cavern, half- discernible, 

Fenris and his Pack. 

ODIN 

He sleeps, yet restive still ; with eyelids squint 
Through which his eyes, in dreams still shifting, flash 
Like flame through knot-holes. Yet he sleeps ; beside 

him 
His wild pack, crouching, share his chain. — A lull : 
Betwixt moonset and sunrise, one at least, 
One lull in that insensate harsh defiance, 
The beast-night-barking of my wolfish son. 
You stars ! Fenris is quiet. Now the dews 
May fall in silence, now the mountain birds 
Nest silent by the unawakened morning. 
The wide dark fold its wings and dream. Now peace, 
The infinite soliloquy of thought, 
Descends on Odin. 

3 



4 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

[A silent pause, during which the first pale signs of dawn 
appear oji the crags. Odin whispe?'s to the ravens on 
his shoulders and they fly away. He sits motionless and 
serene^ 

THE PACK 
\_Shiinbrously.'\ 
Ulfr ! Ulfr sof nathi ! 

ODIN 
[ Gazes again on Fenris.] 

That this dread should breathe ! 
And yon beast born from out my loins — to me, 
To me, that from this forehead plucked an eye 
To pawn for Mimi's knowledge. — Wisdom, truth, 
Beauty, and law, the tranquil goals of mind, 
All these had I attained, and I a god ; 
Yet on the lank, alluring hag of Chaos 
Begat this son, this living fang. 

THE PACK 
\Slu?nbrously.~\ 
Ulfr ! Ulfr sofnathi ! 

ODIN 

O thou 
Dumb spirit of the mind ! O mystery ! 
Were there a god whom Odin might invoke, 
To thee would Odin sue for pity. — Ages, 
A thousand ages, anguish ; 
Anguish, remorse, forgiveness, malediction. 



THE PROLOGUE 

Light into darkness, horror into hope, 

Revolving evermore. — O pain, O pain, 

Sear not my spirit blind ! — Thou, tameless wolf, 

God of the void eternal retrograde. 

Prone deity of self, by that thou art — 

Illimitable passion, joyance mad 

Of being, hate, brute-cunning, gnawing lust, 

Fenris, I curse thee. 

\_Fenris wakes."] 

THE PACK 
imM/y.'] 
Ulfr ! Ulfr vaknathi ! 

FENRIS 

Father ! 



ODIN 



Still that name ! 



FENRIS 

Father ! 

ODIN 

Fenris, my son, forgive me. 

FENRIS 

Fetch Fenris Freyja. 

ODIN 

Bastard wolf, 
Be silent. 



6 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

FENRIS 

Baldur, my brother's bride betrothed, 
Freyja, fetch me. 

ODIN 

Still no longing but 'tis lust, 
No aspiration but 'tis appetite. 

FENRIS 

Anarch ! anarch ! anarch ! Father, free me ! 

ODIN 

Free thee, thou poor antagonist. Knowest thou 
Not yet why thou art chained ? Retarded thing. 
Emancipate thyself ! What might it avail 
Though Odin burst these links and loosed thee? — 

Thou 
Thyself art thine own bondage and thy pain. 

THE PACK 

Ulfr ! Ulfr ! 

FENRIS 

Anarch ! anarch ! Ulfr ! 

ODIN 

Yet could'st thou show some genesis of good, 
Some spring of growth. Hadst thou, in all these ages, 
Waxed toward my stature imperceptibly 
Even as the seed, that germinates in darkness. 
Feels toward the sky ; yea, hadst thou now one pale 
Potential spark of godhood, nobler desire. 
Evolving intellect, one lineal trait 



THE PROLOGUE f 

To prove that upward through thy brutish heart 
Yearns infinite Reason, even now, poor son. 
Would I strike off these fetters, set thee free, 
Thee and thy pack, and put my hope in time. 

THE PACK 

Heil ! Heil, Othinn ! 

FENRIS 

Fenris ! Free him. 

ODIN 

But lo ! instead, what art thou ? Ye faint stars, 
Before you close your eyes in day, once more 
Behold him ! Ye icy craters and hoar caves, 
Thou solitary dawn, eternal sky. 
Perennial snows — you timeless presences, 
Behold your consummation : this, even this, 
Is Odin's elder son, creation's heir ! 

FENRIS 

Anarch ! anarch ! anarch ! anarch ! anarch ! 

\Odin, covering his face^ turns away and disappears behind 

the crag. Fenris^ with his pack, retires into the cavern, 

dragging his chain. Outside Baldur is heard singing, 

joined, in chorus, by the voices of nature on whom he 

calls.~\ 

BALDUR 

Flushing peak, fainting star, 

Freyja ! 
Torches in thy temple are, 

Freyja ! 



8 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

Spirits of air, 
Anses and elves, 
Brightens the dawn, 
Freyja is gone. 
Come ! let us go to her, girding ourselves. 

CHORUS 

Freyja, where art thou ? 
Where ? Where ? 

[Freyja enters, looking fearfully around her.~\ 

FREYJA 

Those giant beards and backs ! — They turn and look. 
The peaks pursue me, and the nudging cliffs 
Thrust out great chins and stare. Where should this 
lead .? 

BALDUR 

\_Outside.~\ 

Mortal day, man's desires, 

Freyja! 
Feed on earth thine altar-fires, 
Freyja ! 
Spirits of earth, 
Wood-sprites and Wanes, 
Gone is our mirth. 
Sorrow remains. 
Come ! let us hasten and bid her beware ! 

CHORUS 

Freyja, where art thou .? 
Where .-* Where } 



THE PROLOGUE 9 

FREYJA 

Can this place be i' the world ? And were such 

shapes 
Wrought in the dear creation ? And that voice — 
Was it this crater's frozen mouth that moaned 
For blossoms and the south wind and my love ? 

BALDUR 

\_Enters^ 
Freyja ! 

FREYJA 

O Baldur, come ! 

BALDUR 

What hast thou seen ? 
Why hast thou left the silver roof of shields, 
Thy lover's eyes, the laughter of the gods, 
To wander forth in night ? 

FREYJA 

Barkings I heard. 



Hush, Freyja! 



BALDUR 



FREYJA 

Through the music of the gods 
Faintly I heard it knell and yearn for me ; 
And so I stole away. But tell me — 

BALDUR 

Come ! 



10 FENR/S, THE WOLF 

FREYJA 
Tell me what thing of nameless woe — 

BALDUR 

Oh, come 
And ask not. Come away to Valhal. 

\_He leads her unpetuotisly away from the ci'ater toward the 

sunrise. '\ 



FREYJA 
\Resists gently^ 

BALDUR 



Baldur ! 



Freyja, look down ! Spring leaps among the valleys 
And calls his universal flocks, to drink 

The love of Freyja. 
The forests rush together and the groves. 
And the male oaks, like herded elk at war. 
Tangle their budding antlers, and moan loud 

For Freyja's love. 

Look down ! The silvered pastures and the lakes 
Lift all their sacrificial clouds, to crave 

The love of Freyja ; 
And day's bright stallion, snorting in the east, 
Paws the pale stream of morning into gold 
And champs his golden curb to burning foam 

For Freyja's love. 

\^He draws her farther away.~\ 



THE PROLOGUE II 

FREYJA 
But if one yearn in vain — 

\The rattle of Fenris^s manacles echoes in the crater. '\ 

THE PACK 

Ulfr! Ulfr vaknathi ! 

FREYJA 

Listen ! They cry — 
" The wolf awakeneth ! " What wolf ? And why 
That clang of steel ? 

BALDUR 

His chain. 

FREYJA 
\_In dreadful wonder?^ 

But he? 

BALDUR 

A beast 
Untamed and tameless. — Ask not with thine eyes ! — 
Fenris, my brother. 

FREYJA 
\_Springs joyfully toward the crater^ 
Ah! 

BALDUR 
\Stays her.] 

Where art thou going ? 

FREYJA 

To greet my lover's kindred. Were it not well ? 



12 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

BALDUR 
Oh, would it were ! Look not ; this kin is monstrous. 

FREYJA 

Is it not a god as we ? 

BALDUR 

It is a god, 
Freyja, but not as we. — It is the wolf-god. 
Lord of the dumb and kithless wild, that live 
To breed and kill their forms of dreadful beauty — 
A vacant sacrifice to him : the doe. 
That stills all night her knocking heart, to hear 
The wood-cat's footfall, breathes mute prayer to 

Fenris ; 
The frothing stag, that blazons the black boar 
With gules of death, bruits hymns to Fenris ; yet 
Their pangs assuage him not, for he himself 
Remains the abject deity of lust, 
His rites, the stretched claw and the stiffened mane ; 
His priest — a sated fang ; his altar — fear. 

FREYJA 

But why makes he his sanctuary thus 
Lonely in desolation } 

BALDUR 

'Tis the will 
Of Odin. Ask no more. This cleft he chose 
Wherein to hide the secret woe of the world, 
That never thou shouldst look upon its face. 



THE PROLOGUE 1 3 

FREYJA 
I? 

BALDUR 

Thou, O maiden ! Thou art the hope of the world. 

FENRIS 

Freyja ! 

FREYJA 

He calls me. 

FENRIS 

Freyja ! 

FREYJA 

Hark ! He yearns 
For me ! 

BALDUR 
[ Urging her away^ 

'Tis Odin's will. 

FENRIS 

Freyja ! 

FREYJA 

He cries 

In pain. Hold me no longer. — Fenris ! 

ODIN 

\_Enteringy intercepts her path with his spear. '\ 

Stay ! 
FREYJA 

Allfather ! hark his pain. Alas, poor wolf ! 



14 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

ODIN 

Poor wolf ? Poor world ! poor blind, precarious Reason, 
Beneath whose sovereign throne this horror sits, 
Cat-crouching to usurp it. — F'ear him ; go ! 

FENRIS 

Ai ! ai ! anarch ! Freyja ! 

FREYJA 

He yearns for me. Am I not beautiful } 
Am I not holy } Wherefore should I fear } 
All living things love Freyja; gods and men, 
Anses and elves and helpless animals. 
Where I walk glittering, there lovers press 
And consecrate their eyes and beat their hearts 
Like moths against the moon. And shall I go 
Nor smile once kindly on him .? Even the moon 
Is kinder to her loves. 

ODIN 

He craves no smile 
From thee, nor ever smiled into the face 
Of love since his birth-hour. He lusts for thee. 

FREYJA 

Why should he not } Hath Odin never lusted ? 
What mind that knows the lust of intellect 
Shall mock desire .'' Ah ! Who that ever yearned, 
Yearned not in ignorance } 

BALDUR 

Have pity, father ! 



THE PROLOGUE 1 5 

ODIN 
\To FreyJaJ] 
Child, pitiest thou this thing ? 

FREYJA 

Hath not its voice 
Cried out immortally and craved me ? Pity ? 
Love is a kind of pity for itself 
That longs so endlessly. Allfather, never 
Ere now hast thou gainsaid me. 

ODIN 

Yet must now ! 
This bitterness is mine alone to bear. 
O Freyja ! O my Baldur ! You of all 
The creatures of my will, bright lovers, you 
Only are happy. Be so still. Depart ! 
Forget these wolvish cries ; seek not to help 
Evil unsolvable. 

FREYJA 

What then is evil. 
That lovers may not solve it .-* 

ODIN 

\_His face turning wistful with a beautiful light, lifts his 
obstructive spear^ and stands from the path.'] 

Hope of the world ! 

FENRIS 

Freyja ! 



1 6 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

ODIN 
Behold ! 

[He watches with the look of wistfulness as Freyja and 
Baldur, springing to the brink of the crater, gaze down 
upon FenrisJ] 

FREYJA 

Ah me! 

BALDUR 

Fenris, my brother ! 

FREYJA 

O pain ! Why dost thou look upon me so ? 

FENRIS 

Fair art, Freyja; shalt Fenris fear not? 

FREYJA 

What wouldst thou ? 

FENRIS 

Lithe thy limbs are ; lief am to lie with thee. 

FREYJA 

Are these snows thy dwelling-place ? 
No flowers grow here. Take these. 

\Freyja lets fall so 7ne of her flowers into the crater 7\ 

FENRIS 
\Tearing them, as the Pack yells ^ 
Anarch ! anarch ! 



THE PROLOGUE 1/ 

FREYJA 
[^Drawing back.'\ 

Alas! 

BALDUR 

Peace, brother ! 

FREYJA 

Thou lovest me. Why, then, art thou not glad ? 

FENRIS 

Chafe, choke me, chains ; chaffeth the churl at me ! 

FREYJA 

Take heart ; we come to bring thee peace. O Baldur ! 

{Clinging to Baldur, she gazes with fascinated awe upon 
Fe7i7is, who, pacing ever in and out, amid his involv- 
ing Pack, with the swift, incessant shuttle movement of a 
caged wild thing, upturns his shifting eyes in yearning?)^ 

FENRIS 

Free me, Freyja; frore am I, frost-bit. 
Go we together into greenwood glad. 
Mirk under moon-mist mad will meet thee. 
Hunt thee from hiding, thy heart-beats hear ! 
Press thee, panting ! 

THE PACK 

Ulfr! Ulfr! 

FENRIS 
Bite — bark at thee — 



1 8 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

THE PACK 
Ulfr! Ulfr! 

FENRIS 

Miles, miles, miles ! 

FREYJA 
\_To Baldur^ 

He loves me, yet his looks are terrible. 

He saw me, yet he smiled not. Flowers I gave him, 

But he destroyed them. Sorrowful he is. 

Yet hath no tears in his eyes. — What shall we do .'* 

FENRIS 

Free me, Freyja; fair art thou, froward — 

Go we together into greenwood glad. 

Burns thine eyebeam bright as the bitch-wolf's, 

Longeth Fenris in thy lair to lie ; 

Longeth to chase thee. 

THE PACK 

Ulfr! Ulfr! 

FENRIS 

Chafe, champ thee — 

THE PACK 

Ulfr! Ulfr! 

FENRIS 

Leave thee with child. 



THE PROLOGUE 19 

FREYJA 

Baldur, what reeling darkness snows around us 
From heaven ? The rose of dawn is stung with blight. 

ODIN 
[Aside. 1 

O mystery ! O will behind the will. 
How shall this end ? 

BALDUR 

From heaven no darkness falls ; 
It is the glamour of his woeful eyes, 
That spet the night within them. 

FREYJA 

\^Half wildly y whispers at Baldur^ s ear.'\ 

It must cease ! 
The shy bird hath his song within the wood, 
The shepherd's call is sweet along the hills, 
To husband and to lover are the sounds 
Of gracious voices in the home places, — 
To hifyiy the ceaseless clanging of his chain. 

BALDUR 

O Freyja, we will minister to him. 
Until for him the shy bird's song is sweet, 
And sweet the shepherd's call along the hills. 
Fenris ! 

\_Swinging from the brink of the crater, he lets himself down. 
As he desce7ids, Fenris springs toward him to the limit 
of his chain.'] 



20 FENR/S, THE WOLF 

FENRIS 

Hail, Baldur ! hail, brother ! Boast thy beauty 
now ; 

Woo now and wive thee, welcome to Fenris' woe. 

All elf-gifts thou asked Odin gave thee, 

Sunlight, summer, song for solace, 

Fair face, freedom, Freyja to friend. 

Me what gave he? Mark! — Mountain-mist, mad- 
ness. 

Monstrous made me, marr'd, wolf-masked, 

Cramped in snow-crater, frost-crusted, chained ; 

Numb, naked, night-winds gnaw me, 

Bhstereth black ice, biteth my bones. 

BALDUR 

Thou shalt be free. 

FENRIS 

Me mocketh, mocketh ! Ai ! 

BALDUR 

Fenris, my brother, hear me ! 
I bring thee freedom. 

FENRIS 
[Holding out his chain to Baldur P^ 

Liest ; — loose me ! 

BALDUR 

Hush! I know the secret 
How thou mayst slip these shackles. I have learned 
From Odin how he binds thee. Wilt thou hear ? 



THE PROLOGUE 21 

FENRIS 
[ Craftily beckoning Baldur under the shadow of a cleft.'] 

Tss ! Wise is the One-Eyed. Tss ! read me thy 
riddle now. 

BALDUR 

Know then, O Fenris, Odin of himself 
Is weak to hold thee. Of his kin, another 
Conniveth with him. 

FENRIS 

Kin, sayst } 

BALDUR 

Thou, his son. Thou forgest 
Chains stubborner than Odin's, links of lust 
Mightier than these of steel, which are themselves 
The might of these thou wearest. O my brother, 
Lay off thine own, and Odin's shall be straw. 

FENRIS 
Thus readest thy riddle } 

BALDUR 

Thus findest thou freedom : do our father's will. 
His law is wisdom. All the folk of heaven 
And earth and hell obey him gladly ; thou — 
Submit thou also ; make thine oath to Odin. 

FENRIS 

Oathless be Odin ; am / earth's overlord ! 

\_Odin beckons to the eastward with his spear. From the 
distance co?nes a flash of fire and faint thunder.] 



22 FENR/S, THE WOLF 

BALDUR 

Hush, brother, hush ! He hears ; for thy pain's sake 
Remember he is Allf ather. Be meek. 

FENRIS 

Am / Asa's heir ! — I — I — I am Allf ather ! 

\^By a dazzling river of light and thunder-peal^ the whole 
scene is riven. On the peaks at either side appear Loki 
and Thor. Loki holds in his hand a serpentine whip 
of maiiy lashes ^ as of glittering drass ; Thor, a white 
hammer. The Pack cower, moaning; Fenris stands 
glaring, with head bent backward as in sudden pain.'\ 

ODIN 

Hail, Loki ! Welcome, Thor ! in happy time. 
Are ye not come to crown me Odin the Wise ? 
Shake out the live scorn of thy withering laughter, 
Loki, over the world : Odin hath been defied ! 
Hammer it, Thor, on the clanged doors of hell, 
Till their intestine thunders toll our doom — 
*' The wolf shall sit alone, at Valhal's feast. 
And eat of Odin's heart ! " 

FREYJA 

Alas ! What words ! 

ODIN 

This is mine heir. Hath it not spoken ? This 
Shall sit one day in Odin's seat. Mine heir ! 
The heir of all the gods. Behold then, gods. 
How this, your prince, receives his tutelage. 



THE PROLOGUE 23 

BALDUR 
Father, what wilt thou do ? 

ODIN 

Tame him, the tameless ; 
The eternal goad against the eternal stone. 
Yea, though I tame him not till doomsday darken. 

\To Loh'J] 

Loosen thy scourge. 

\Held by his cham, Fenris flees wildly in circles^ and seek- 
ing to hide hi7nself, finally crouches in terror, ce?itre. 
He is prevented from entering the cavern by Thor, who 
sta7ids there.'\ 

FENRIS 

Anarch! Ai! anarch! Anarch! Ulfr! Ulfr ! 

BALDUR AND FREYJA 
Have pity ! 

ODIN 

Pity ask 
Of him ; this wolf must reign or I. Strike, Loki ! 
Let thy bright lashes scorch with all their snakes 
Till the live, brassy serum eats and crawls 
Into the writhing blood. Begin ! 

BALDUR AND FREYJA 

Have mercy ! 



24 FEIVRIS, THE WOLF 

\_As Loki swings his whip of fire, the Pack beneath fall on 
their faces. Amid them Fenris crouches at half statiC7'e. 
Baldur and Freyfa kneel as frozen, with lifted hands 
toiuard Odin. Thus in sudden twilight and silence^ fine 
silent lashes of unintermittent lightning uncoil and coil, 
as the scourge is whirled, aroufid the cringing body of 
the wolf. A shudder only reveals his extreme J)angs.'\ 

ODIN 
Cease ! \_Loki ceases. ~\ Wolf, what of thine oath ? 



FENRIS 



Oathless am I. 



BALDUR 

Fenris, be tamed ! 

FENRIS 

I — I — I am Allf ather ! 

ODIN 

Sublime inanity ! heroic ape ! 
This strong defiance were itself divine, 
And thou a titan-martyr, had thy pride 
One rational aim commensurate with thy woe. 
But all thy suffering is purposeless. 
Strike, Thor ! Make of his obdurate heart thine 
anvil. 

THE PACK 

\_Some fawning toward Odin, others seeking protection of 

Fenris. '\ 

Heil, Othinn ! Ulfr, heil ! 



THE PROLOGUE 25 

\As Fenris, by a gesture of rage, drives these frotn him into 
the cavern, Thor raises his ha7nmer. Immediate night 
shuts out the scene. In this surge of darkness the deep 
rolling of thunder swells a?id culminates, as by waves, 
in the blank burst of the thunder-bolt. Through a half- 
lull, amid moaning of the Pack, are heard voices from 
the crater^ 

BALDUR'S VOICE 

She leaps. Hold, Thor ! She casteth herself down. 

FREYJA'S VOICE 

Beat on my heart, for mine containeth his. 

ODIN 

Light ! light once more ! 

\The thunder dies away. Sudden dawn breaks, ripening 
soon to daylight. Within the crater, Fi'cyfa is revealed, 
standing over the exhausted fortn of Fenris.'\ 

Freyja, what hast thou dared.? 

FREYJA 

The bolt of iron and the scourge of brass 
Avail not, Odin. — Let me conquer him 
For thee ! 

ODIN 

How wouldst thou tame him 1 

FREYJA 

By my love, 
Yea, and the exceeding might of Baldur's love. 
Whose gracious arts of poesie shall aid me. 
Grant him to us ! 



26 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

BALDUR 

Grant him to us, O father ! 

ODIN 
[_ Going apart ^ 

thou unknown Destroyer and Deliverer, 
Rape not again from me this nestling hope ! 

\He descends into the crater^ 
BALDUR AND FREYJA 

Grant him to us, AUf ather, to be tamed ! 

FENRIS 
\_Clutching the snow at their feet, feebly 7\ 

1 — I am Allf ather! 

ODIN 

Lovers, I grant him to you ; but not here, 

For this concession must be darkly hid 

Till you have proved its beauteous consummation. 

Not, therefore, here I grant, but yonder. 

\_Indicates the earth belozv them.~\ 

There 
You shall enact a vast experiment. 
Whereof the pregnant sequel none may know- 
Save only him, the master magian. 
Whose prentices we gods and titans are, 
And the blind wills of men his medium. 
For he, with silent face from us averted. 
Holds in the awful hollow of his hand 
The world — his crucible, and plies with them 



THE PROLOGUE 27 

Ordeals of anguish and of ecstasy. 
Therefore the earth must be your place of passion, 
And there in slumber, even as mortals dream, 
Slumb'ring, that they are bright immortal gods, 
You shall be mortals, and shall walk as men, 
Forgetful of your immortality. 

\_Faintly, as from a great distance, there rises a sound of 
many voices crying, " Odin ! Asa Odin I " and the 
rumour of beasts in pain.~\ 

Hark, now ! from far below us, the deep moan 

And lowing of a mortal sacrifice. 

Speak, Thor ! What seest thou at Odin's altar .? 

THOR 

A mighty hunter and a twisted dwarf 

Make sacrifice ; rivals they seem, in feud. 

And claim the hand of Thordis, thy priest's daughter, 

And the priest cries on Odin for a portent 

To choose which of the brothers shall be bridegroom. 

ODIN 

Lo, then, my portent ! We ourselves, we four, 
Shall be those rival brothers, priest and bride ; 
Loki and Thor shall ravish them with death 
That we, in resurrection, may take on 
Their bodies as our mortal vestiture. 
For I will act with you this mystery, 
Dreaming myself the priest of mine own shrine ; 
And Freyja, child, thy goddess heart shall beat 
Within the heart of Thordis, mortal maid ; 
Thy boundless spirit, Baldur, shall be pinched 



28 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

Within the gnarled limbs of the stunted dwarf, 
Twisted with pain, as now thy brother is ; 
Thou, envious wolf, jealous of Baldur's joys ! 
Thy feverish being shall invest the power 
And glorious stature of the hunter. So 
Shalt thou have scope and license measureless 
To woo the heart of Freyja. So shall ye, 
Lovers, make proof of your conjoined love 
And trothed meekness, whether these be strong 
To tame this wolf, and from his blinding lusts 
Evolve a nobler consciousness, or weak 
To let themselves be blasted, and the world 
Itself eclipsed in universal chaos. 

FREYJA 

If we be strong .? 

ODIN 

The wolf-god shall be tamed. 

FENRIS 
l^In rage, half rising.'] 

Oathless am I unto Odin ever ! 

\_He sinks back, fainf.~\ 

BALDUR 

\_To Odin.'] 
And tamed } 

ODIN 

He shall go free. 

FREYJA 

Even in such freedom 
As ours ? 



THE PROLOGUE 29 



ODIN 



O Freyja, larger liberty — 
The mightier peace which mortals only know -- 
Even death. 

FENRIS 
Freedom ! Anarch — anarch ! Freedom ! 

LOKI 

Hail, Odin ; smoketh thine altar afar. 
Burneth to thee the cloven bullock's heart ; 
The sacrificers watch and wait thy sign. 

ODIN 

Let them behold it ! Thou and Thor, stretch out 
Your wings in storm, and ravish up their souls 
With night and death. 

\To Baldiir and Freyja^ 

Come, you my children ! Now 
Shall our immortal fires be mixed with clay 
In the great crucible, and these our spirits 
No more shall know themselves for gods, until 
The shadowy Master shows the great solution. 

\_In faint lightning and thunder, Loki and Thor disappear. 
Odin ascends the crater, followed by Baldur and Freyja. 
Climbing together the steep slope, these two look back- 
ward upon the prostrate wolf who, following them with 
his eyes, moves not until they reach the summit. There ^ 
against a sky of sunlit storm, Freyja pauses and 
stretches forth her arm to him.'] 



30 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

FREYJA 
Dear wolf ! 

FENRIS 
[^Starts up madly.'] 

Freyja ! death — freedom ! freedom ! death ! — Now 
— now ! 

\_As Freyja and the gods pass from sight beyond the cliffs, 
Fenris gnaws at his chain in inarticulate fury ^ 



ACT FIRST 



ACT I 

Scene I : Outside a tribal temple. 

The gable beams are low ; only the entrance end of the build- 
ings set at an angle, on the left, is visible. In the dis- 
tance rises a snow-capped volcano, its slopes — in the 
nearer backgroimd — pied with the young leaves and 
blossoms of early spring ; against these, jutting from be- 
hind the temple, a gallows-tree. On the right, at back, 
a solitary pine of great age sways solemn boughs over 
half the scene, the cetitre of which is occupied by a vast 
monolith, or boulder, tapering upward to a jagged end. 
The face of this stone, graved deeply with runes, is (on 
its lower half) dark carmine and smooth as ivory ; 
from behind it blue smoke is rising; before it stands an 
altar of stone, on which is set a silver bowl. 

In front of this altar stands Ingimund, the temple priest, clad 
in a sleeveless leathern smock to the knees ; his arms are 
reddened with sacrifice ; from his throat — beneath his 
long, grey hair — hangs an image of Odifi; on his right 
wrist a ring of plain gold; in his left hand a spear. 
On either side of him an altar priest holds a bunch of 
sprinkling twigs. From the temple four other priests 
are bearing a slaughtered bullock to the fire behind the 
rune-stone. Massed in the right foreground are Egil 
and his men; on the left, Arfi and his men. Egil, noble 
of stature, stands moodily filing the grooves of a cross- 
bow ; Arfi, bent and dwarfed, sits with his ear close to 
a harp, which he thrums softly. 
D 33 



34 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

From the right background, beneath the pine^ enters, singing, 
a procession of the folk, escorting an ark on wheels, 
drawn by oxen, whose flanks are wreathed with flowers , 
and whose hor?is are adorned with gold. Following the 
ark, which passes on into the temple, horses and sheep 
are led to the sacrifice. These, as they pass before him, 
Ingimund marks with the sign of a spear, while the altar 
priests sprinkle them with blood from the silver bowl. 

At the entrance of the temple stand Thordis and her Vir- 
gins, who take from the beasts their garlands and hang 
them on the doors and outer walls. The men and 
women of the throng, chanting to a barbaric cadence, 
lift up their arms and faces to the sky, 

THE FOLK 

Wanderer of earth and air, 
Walker on the giant flood, 
Odin ! Asa Odin ! 
Pilgrim of the storm ! 

Lyer in the Sybil's lair. 
Reader of the runes of blood. 
Thou who hearkenest all prayer — 
World-spirit and worm, 

Odin ! Asa Odin ! 

Hear us, Allfather ! 

\_Distant thunder^ 

FRIDA 
Thordis, he hears. 

THE VIRGINS 

He hears ! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 35 

THE FOLK 

He hears ! 

YORUL 

\_To Rolf.'] 

Behold 

The dwarf, where he sits shrivelled by his harp. 

Ho, Arfi! hear'st thou Odin? Hast invited 

The trolls, thy cousins, to the bridal ? 

WULDOR 

Silence ! 
He listens to the stars behind the storm. 

YORUL 

The tree-frogs, Wuldor. He, thy master, is 
Their father. 

WULDOR 

So thy master is their uncle. 

YORUL 

My master shall be bridegroom, never fear ! 
Hath Arfi slain his boar } 

WULDOR 

Hath Egil sung 
The slaying of his boar .? 

YORUL 

Hath Arfi leashed 
The wild stag by the horns and led him home .'* 

WULDOR 
Hath Egil read the runes on Odin's stone .-* 



36 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

YORUL 
Weaklings and women ye ! 

WULDOR 

Thou liest, Yorul. 

YORUL 
\_Strtkes Wuldor.~\ 
Ho, Egil, here! 

WULDOR 

\_Retaliaiing.~\ 

Ho, Arfi ! 

\The followers, from either side, spri7ig forivard and fight 
fiercely. Ingimund strikes among them with his spear.'] 

INGIMUND 

Fools of anger ! 
This ground is Odin's ; he alone may judge 
Which of your masters shall betroth his priestess. 
Back ! and await his sign. — Come, Thordis. 

FRIDA 

\_Parting with Thordis by the temple.'] 

Joy 
And love be thine, dear lady. 

[^Leaving her maidens, Thordis comes quietly from the temple 
and stands before the rune-stone and Ingimund, who, 
with his spear, beckons also Egil and Arfi. As these 
join Thordis, the altar priests, with a heavy chain of 
gold, eficlose the four in a circular space, while the folk 
chant as before.] 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 37 

THE FOLK 

Save us, Lord, from lovers' hate, 
Shelter us from brothers' feud ! 
Odin ! Asa Odin ! 
Only thou art wise. 

Choose unto this maid a mate 
Hallowed by thy sanctitude, 
Send thine omen while we wait, 
Making sacrifice. 

Odin ! Asa Odin ! 

Save us, Allf ather ! 

\Thunder ; storm gathers and the scene grows darker^ as 
bigger clouds of smoke roll upward from behind the 
rune-stoned^ 

INGIMUND 

[^Removing the gold circlet from his wrist.'] 

Here, 

Your right hands here — all three — on Odin's ring. 

\_To Egily then Arfi.] 

Press deeper in the sand thy foot, now thine. 

\_To the Priests.'] 

Fill up the footprints with the sacred blood. 
Brother in brother's footstep, hark your oath — 
Your oath to abide by Asa Odin's will. 

\_As Egil and Arfi grasp the ring, lightning begins to play 
over the scene, and thunder deepens the voices of the 
people.] 



38 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

THE FOLK 

Odin ! Odin ! Asa Odin ! 
Send upon thy folk a portent ! 

INGIMUND 
[Lifting his face and spear toward the sky, intone sT^ 

By thy runes forever writ 
On Allwaker's ear and Allswift's hoof, 
On Sleipni's teeth and the sledge-bands, 
On the Wolf's claw and the eagle's beak, 
On the bloody wings and the bridge's end ! — 

THE FOLK 

Odin ! Odin ! Asa Odin ! 
Send upon thy folk a portent ! 

INGIMUND 

By thy runes forever writ 

On Brage's tongue and the bear's paw. 

On the midwife's palm and the amber god, 

On Noma's nail and the owl's neb. 

On wine and wort and the Sibyl's seat ! — 

THE FOLK 

Odin ! Odin ! Asa Odin ! 
Send thy portent, O AUfather ! 

FRIDA 

Look ! look ! himself doth come. 

THE FOLK 

Fly ! fly ! Oh, fly ! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 39 

FRIDA 
Himself doth come, and with him all the gods ! 

\_Amid supernatural darkness and thunder-peal, Ingimund, 
Thordis, Egil, and A7'fi are struck to the earth, and all 
the people flee, except Yorul and Frida, who crouch 
beside the temple. '\ 

THE FOLK 
\_In the distance.'] 
Bow down ! bow down ! 

[^Pause ; the passing of the storm ; silence^ 

FRIDA 
\Rising.'\ 

Yorul ! — You do not speak. 
Yorul ! 

YORUL 

O Frida, hush ! 

FRIDA 

And did you see them ? 
Four were they all together, and they passed 
Like fire, and four returned, in robes of flame, 
But paler. 

YORUL 

May be so ; I saw them not. 

FRIDA 

Two others stood on Odin's stone, and one 
Laughed loud, and whirled a whip of blazing brass, 
And one thrust through his beard a smoking hammer. 



40 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

YORUL 

May be ; may be. What did you say ? Speak not ! 

\_Embracing herJ] 

O heart of mine, thou beatest yet. We live. 
The sun — how still it is ! What's that } 

A bird 



FRIDA ^ 



Singing under the temple's eaves. 

YORUL 

And all 

Are fled. What be those four that lie so still? 
[ Together they approach the bodies^ 
FRIDA 

Alas ! O lady dear ! 

YORUL 

Dead ! they are dead. 
Egil, my master ! Odin's voice hath slain him. 
Cursed be Odin ! 

FRIDA 

Yorul — take them back, 
Those words ! Their sacrilege shall work us woe. 

YORUL 

What matter } He is dead. 

FRIDA 

Oh, do not think it ! 
Perhaps they sleep. Look how their brows still wear 
High thoughts. I think they dream. Go ! fetch a 
leech. 



FEATRIS, THE WOLF 4 1 

' YORUL 
A leech for death ? 

FRIDA 
Go quickly, Yorul ! 

YORUL 

Well! 
[_Going otif.'\ 

A leech here for the dead ! A leech, ho ! 

\_Exif.'\ 

' FRIDA 

\_Alone with the four bodies, stands before the rune-stone^ 

Odin! 
Have pity on the dead ; let them awake ! 

^Slowly the bodies rise and look upon her ; she crouches 

before them.~\ 

Ah me ! Your eyes ! They burn. O turn away 
Your bright eternal eyes ! 

\She falls unconscious. Egil, who has risen with the gold 
altar chain wound about him, gnaws it.~\ 

EGIL 

Death ! Freedom ! freedom ! 
\_Enter Yorul and a IjEEcn, followed by the folk.'] 

THE LEECH 

Who calls for leechcraft here ? 

YORUL 
[^Stands bewildej'ed.'] 

A miracle ! 



42 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 
\_Bends over Frida.~\ 
The child is stricken. 

ARFI 

Let me lift her, Thordis. 

YORUL 

A miracle ! O Frida, speak to me ! 

THE LEECH 
[To the folk. '\ 
Stand off ! Give air ! 

WULDOR 
[To the folk.] 

Hath Yorul then deceived us ? 

ROLF 

Behold, they live ! 

FRIDA 
[Rising, faintly.'] 
Thanks ; lead me to the temple. 

INGIMUND 
What hath befallen .? 

WULDOR 

Hail, Ingimund ! The portent 
Of Odin hath befallen. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 43 

INGIMUND 

Saw ye, or what ? 

[ Wuldor and the folk whisper among themselves. Yorul 
supports Frida toward the temple^ 

YORUL 
But how ? What chanced ? 

FRIDA 

Their eyes ! their burning eyes ! 
Oh, I have seen their souls : they are not theirs. 
Four bright ones came, four pale ones went away. 

YORUL 
Clean reft of wit ! 

FRIDA 

Oh, shut me in the dark ! 

[Taking Frida from Yorul, the temple virgins lead her into 

the temple.'\ 

INGIMUND 
[To Wuldor.'] 
Saw ye, I say, or what ^ 

WULDOR 

Ask Yorul, father. - 

INGIMUND 

Speak thou ! What hath befallen .? 



44 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

YORUL 
\Returning dazed from the temple^ 

Odin is wise ; 
Ye that were dead are risen from the dead, 
And Frida, my betrothed, is reft of reason. — 
She said it would be, for I cursed him. — Egil ! 
Master and lord, welcome to life ! 

[Egil, who, with fixed gaze, has been eyeing Thordis, starts 

wildly, paces back and forth, dragging the altar chain as 

he moves.^ 

EGIL 

A verdict ! 

A verdict, priest and earls ! Thordis is mine. 



Thordis for Egil ! 



EGIL'S MEN 
ARFI'S MEN 

Thordis for Arfi ! 



INGIMUND 

Peace ! 
Heaven's omen still is dark, and Odin's sign 
Ambiguous. Not one, but four of us. 
His hand hath stricken. Wherefore thus I read 
His riddle : Thordis shall herself decide. 

THORDIS 

Father, not I ! 

INGIMUND 

This ancient feud must end. 
These two have sworn to abide by Odin's will ; 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 45 

His will it is that thou make choice of them. 
Hearken their pleas, and choose. 

THORDIS 

To one must I 
Give pain .? 

INGIMUND 

To one give joy. Speak, Arfi, 

ARFI 

Lady, 
That those who love are blind I pray be so 
That, loving, so you may behold me not — 
What thing I seem, but only hear my voice — 
What truth I am. Thordis, even now I dreamed 
A dream more high and awful than the clouds 
And breathless peaks afire of poesie : 
We stood together on the morning's brink ; 
Crater and frozen cliff and snowy scar 
Hung, avalanche on avalanche, below. 
Below them still, — the world ! You spoke to me ; 
Sweeter than measures of imagined song 
Before the harp is struck, your voice ! " Listen ! " 

you said ; 
And echoing from scar and crater rose 
The clanging of a chain. You clung to me ; 
You clung to me and spoke not. — I have done. 

INGIMUND 
Egil ! . 

\_Springing forward, Egil seizes Thordis'' s hand, which he 
raises to his lips."] 



46 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 

I love — I love thee ! 

[He bites her hand. Screaming^ she draws away from him 
and clings to the dwarf. '\ 

THORDIS 

Arfi! 

ARFI 

[Facing Fgit.] 

. Brother ! 

WULDOR 
Blood ! He hath bit her hand. Ho, sacrilege ! 

EGIL 

The maid is mine. 

ARFI 

The maid is Odin's. 

ROLF 

[Seizing YoruPs arm, points at Fgi/.] 

See! 
His eyes grow small and blaze ! 

YORUL 

He is possessed ; 

Some god afflicts him. 

[ IVith a gesture of fury, Egil rushes upon Arfi.'] 

EGIL 

Mine! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 47 

INGIMUND 

\_Stays him.~\ 

The maid is Arfi's, 
For she herself hath chosen him. 

ARFI 

[ Quietly.^ 

A clout, 
To stanch the blood. 

WULDOR 

[_As Arfi binds her hand, gazes on Thordis, whose eyes have 

elosed.~\ 

O fair beyond this world ! 

EGIL 

\_Clutching the air^ in passion for coherence^ 
A rape ! a rape ! Thordis for Egil ! 

YORUL 

\_Dr awing ^ 

Thordis 
For Egil, here ! 

ARFI'S MEN 

Thordis for Arfi ! 

EGIL'S MEN 

Egil! 

INGIMUND 

Beware ! Put back your weapons all, on pain 
Of Odin's wrath. 



48 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

THE FOLK 
\_Murmur.'] 
Remember Odin's wrath. 

EGIL 

Egil recks not for Odin's wrath nor will. 
Who fights for Thordis ? 

INGIMUND 

This is blasphemy. 

EGIL 
Who fights with Egil for the maiden } 



I, 



YORUL 

And all of us. 

EGIL'S MEN 

Till death. 



INGIMUND 

Enough, mine earls ! 
The patience of the lord of peace hath end. 
Egil, thy words and deed have violated 
The sacred place of Odin. Thou art banned ! 
The lord hath put thee from his high place. Go ! 
I cast thee forth, and all who follow thee. 

THE FOLK 
[^Falling back.~\ 
Accurst ! accurst ! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 49 

EGIL 

[^Stands alone in a great circle. '\ 

Behold they cast him forth ! 
Egil is banned ! Who fights with Egil now ? 

YORUL 

I, master! 

ONE OF EGIL'S MEN 

Fly ! he is accurst. 

\_The men hesitate; then all — except twelve^ including Yorul, 
who step into the circle — depart fearfully. ~\ 

■ THE TWELVE 

Hail, Egil ! 

\The folk cry out; some go from the scene ^ others into the 

temple^ 

EGIL 
\_Seizing tip with both hands the silver bowl.'] 

Hail, liegemen ! Twelve and one, we are enough 
To vow ourselves to vengeance 'gainst the world. 
A pledge, here ! Ho, a pledge to groom and bride ! 
Drink pledge with me, in Odin's altar blood. 
Thordis and vengeance ! Hail ! 

THE TV^ELVE 

Thordis and vengeance ! 
\_Egil drinks from the silver bowl.] 



£ 



50 FENRIS, THE WOLF 



Scene II: The interior of Egil's lodge in the 
forest ; toward twilight. 

The room is roughly built of logs, long cross-beains overhead. 
From these (in the right corner, back) hang suspended 
the bodies and skills of antelope, bear, and wild game ; 
and beneath these — piled upon a bench against the wall 
— a heap of furs afid hides. Centre, back, a door. 
Left, in the earthen floor, a hearth with ashes ; above it, 
a hole 171 the roof Beyond this hearth, left, sitting at 
the open window, Frida, alone. She looks out dreamily 
toward the foi-est, from which horiis echo and answer. 
Suddenly she starts up, gazes intently, gives a low cry, 
and, dodging down as she passes the window, springs 
across to the heap of hides, among which she conceals 
herself. After a pause, the door opens ; Egil enters, 
panting — evidently pursiced. His brow is bleeding, 
and he limps. Tiirning to bar the door, he lets fall a 
bloodied wolfs skin. Immediately he snatches it up 
caressingly ; gazes around, listens enraged to the horns, 
lijtips swiftly to the hearth, hesitates ; then, as a sudden 
horn-blast resounds close by, falls on his knees, digs fero- 
ciously in the ashes with his two hands like an anifftal, 
thrusts the wolfs skin in the cavity, and covers it over 
with the ashes, carefully replacing the charred brands 
on top. Swiftly, then, binding up his bleeding brow and 
thigh, he zmbars the door, seizes a whip from a corner, 
and springs stealthily out of the window. At the sa?fie 
moment, horses are heard to gallop up to the lodge ; the 
door bursts open ; Yorul and Rolf appear on the sill. 



FEJVRIS, THE WOLF 51 

YORUL 

He came this way. Look here, Rolf, in the sand — 
And here : are not these paw-prints ? 

ROLF 

May be so. 
I saw him last back yonder in the forest. 

YORUL 

I saw him slinking hither across the open. 
Look, here again ; here's blood. 

ROLF 

What ! was he wounded } 



Did not you see } 



YORUL 
ROLF 

You know I did not ; tell me. 

YORUL 

Twice ; once across the eye, once in the shank. 
'Twas Ingimund struck both wounds. 

ROLF 

Ingimund ! 
YORUL 

Yes, when we left you, Egil rode ahead, 

I and the others after. We had ridden 

A half-mile, when I heard our master shout : 

** Here comes our brother with his bride ahunting." 

And sure, there burst into our narrow glen 

Horse, hound, and horn, the whole bright cavalcade ; 



52 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

And Thordis rode ahead, and Arfi next, 

Last, Ingimund. We reined our horses back — 

ROLF 

Not to pollute the lady with the sight 
Of your accursed faces, eh ? 

YORUL 

Say rather 
To keep our scanty numbers hid. 

ROLF 

Well — well? 

YORUL 

Well, I had hardly reined back in the wood 

And Thordis passed me by — Man, it was awful ! 

Under the very hoofs of the dwarf's horse — 

Out of the earth, it seemed — r there sprang a wolf 

And bit the stalHon's loin. The horse rolled over — 

A wolf — a giant wolf ! 

ROLF 

What then ? 

YORUL 

I say 

It stood as high as that, Rolf, yet I swear 

If it were not a wolf, yet what — 

ROLF 

What happened ? 

YORUL 

There rang a great shout and the riders all 
Leapt to the ground where, in the midst of them. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 53 

Tangled together with the kicking steed, 
Rolled the huge wolf and Arfi ; him the beast 
Held by the gorge between his grinning jaws, 
Throttling him like a whelp. But Ingimund — 

ROLF 
Hel have him ! Did he save the dwarf ? 

YORUL 

He dragged 

The wolf away, and struck him with his spear 

Twice, as I told you. But the beast escaped. 

ROLF 

And Arfi lives .'* 

YORUL 

I know not. I made after 
The wolf, and met you as I tracked him here. 

ROLF 

But what said Egil .? 

YORUL 

I was too amazed 
To look for him. 

ROLF 

There winds his horn in the wood, 
And yonder he comes riding with the others. 
Come ; we'll go meet them. 

[Exii.'\ 
[As Yorul is following Rolf, Frida steps forward^ 

FRIDA 
\Speaks low.l 
Yorul ! 



54 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

YORUL 
Her voice ! Frida ! Frida ! 

FRIDA 

Keep me ! 

YORUL 

Stand farther off. O girl, what brings you here ? 
How found you out this soUtary place ? 

FRIDA 

I left my mistress' side at dawn, and searched 

All day the forest. 

YORUL 

Little Frida, thou ! 

FRIDA 
Come with me ! 

YORUL 

Stand away ! You have forgot 
I am accursto This place is Egil's lodge, 
And all who dwell here banned and castaway. 

FRIDA 

Where you are must I fear to be ? 

YORUL 

Yes, Frida, 
For Ingimund has cursed me with my master. 

FRIDA 

Leave him. 

YORUL 

Whom? 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 55 

FRIDA 
Leave him, Yorul. 

YORUL 

Leave whom, child ? 

FRIDA 



Egil, your master. 

YORUL 

\_In amazement~\ 
Frida ! 

FRIDA 

Hush ! 
\_She goes to the hearth^ 

YORUL 

\In scorn. 1 

Desert 

My lord ! His liegeman, I a traitor ! 

FRIDA 

Look. 

\^Ske brushes back the ashes, revealing the beasfs headJ] 

YORUL 

The wolf ! By heaven, dead ! What — you killed 
him 

FRIDA 

No. 

YORUL 

And flayed, the very brute ! Here are the marks 
Of Ingimund, his spear. Saw you the beast 
Alive .? 



56 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

FRIDA 
Yes. 

YORUL 

Here ? 

FRIDA 

I watched it limping here, 
Wounded, from out the forest. 

YORUL 

Ha ! I said so. 
Here to the very door-sill "i 

FRIDA 

Yes ; it pushed 



But 



The door ajar. 

YORUL 

FRIDA 

Egil entered. 

YORUL 

Egil! 

FRIDA 

His brow was bleeding and he limped. He buried 
That thing beneath the ashes, and sprang forth 
Out at the window. 

YORUL 
Buried this } 

FRIDA 

As dogs 
Bury their secrets, claw and nozzle. — Yorul ! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 57 

YORUL 
You saw ? 

FRIDA 

I saw. O Yorul, 'tis a werewolf. 

YORUL 
[Drops the hide and steps back?^ 
Ah ! do not name it ! 

FRIDA 

Leave him. Come away ! 

YORUL 

Bleeding — his brow, you said ? 

FRIDA 

Yes; come away ! 

YORUL 

So be it. 

FRIDA 

Gracious Odin ! he will come. 

YORUL 

Since that wild day he bit your mistress' hand 
It hath misgiven me the gods torment him. 
Once, for seven days, ceaseless he paced this hall, 
Spoke not, nor ate, but ground and ground his teeth ; 
And in the night, once, when I watched him sleeping, 
His eyelids lay rolled back and filled with fire. 

FRIDA 

That day the storm burst over Odin's stone 
And I beheld those mighty four in flame — 



58 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

Oh, since then, Yorul, they have changed, my mis- 
tress 
Even as your master, save that she has grown 
LoveUer than herself, and seems to bear 
About with her the loadstone of desire. 
For the poor hinds and churls that wait upon her - 
Serve her with souls enamoured. If I thought 
You would believe my vision, I could tell — 
But come, Yorul. Yorul ! you will not come 1 

YORUL 

Never ! Stop, Frida ; do not name the thing 
He is. It matters not to me ; for me 
He is my lord, my master ; that is all. 

FRIDA 

But if — 

YORUL 

If he were that eternal beast 
Whom Odin chains until the dawn of doom, 
Fenris, the wolf — 

FRIDA 

No, say not that ! 

YORUL 

I say 
Still it should matter not ; I am his liegeman. 
His vassal, and his bondslave. I will serve him. 

\_Eiiferf with his followers, Egil, cracking his whip.'] 

EGIL 
The wolf ! Where is your wolf ? 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 59 

ROLF 

We tracked him here. 

EGIL 

Lies ! lies ! He lurks yet in the forest. 

ERIC 
[Pointing at Yorul, who holds up the skin.'] 

Look! 
THE MEN 
The wolf ! 

EGIL 
\_Leaping upon Yorul, flings him to the ground. ~\ 

Traitor ! 

YORUL 

Hold, master — 

FRIDA 

[ Coming forward.'] 

Save him ! 
ROLF 

Thou! 
Thou, maiden, here ? 

FRIDA 

Oh, help him ! 

ERIC 
[ With the others^ help, separates the two.] 

Egil! off! 
EGIL 

A ferret, ho ! a ferret, earls ; hath scent 

And sight and hearing — what, for rats ? No, no, 

For wolves ! 



6o FENRIS, THE WOLF 

ROLF 
\_Aside to Eric.~\ 
The madness ! 

YORUL 

Master, 'tis the wolf. 

I killed him. 

EGIL 

Killed him? Thou? 

[ Craftily.'] 

What wolf ? 

YORUL 

The beast 

That bit the dwarf. 

EGIL 

Dead ; so 'tis dead. Let see ! 

\_Taking the pelt from Yorul^ he drops it on the hearth^ 
It should, methinks, be buried too. Thy kill ? 

YORUL 

Mine, Egil. 

EGIL 
\With his foot, covering the pelt with the ashes.] 

Killed and flayed. Huzza, mine earls. 
For Yorul and his kill. 

THE MEN 
\_Gather round Yorul.] 
Huzza ! 





FENRIS, THE 


WOLF 




6i 




EGIL 
'Aside.'] 


'Tis buried. 




He knows, 


he knows ; I will avenge me. 








'Looks keenly at 


Rolf:_ 


Well, 




What art thou gazing on ? 









ROLF 

On nothing. 

EGIL 

Liest, 
Liest ; art gazing on my brow. What, what .-* 
'Tis bandaged, ah ! What then } What then, I say } 

ERIC 

Why, he is wounded. 

EGIL 

Traitors ! traitors all ! 
Aha, by Loki, but you lie. I fell — 
You lie ! My horse was diked. I fell and gashed me, 
My brow, my thigh. Why not my brow and thigh } 
May not a huntsman fall from 's saddle '^. Liars ! 
I limp, but not for that. I will limp ! 

\_Suddenly changing.'] 

Hark! 

[^He springs to the window.] 



YORUL 
What dost thou hear ? 



62 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 

They smell the blood. They come 
To dig it up. Their nozzles scour the gorse. 
Yorul ! Yorul ! 

YORUL 
\To whom Egil clings. '\ 
'Tis nothing. 

EGIL 

They have found 

The scent. You cannot make them lose it, Yorul. 

You loop and loop for miles, plunge in the lake, 

Swim over, double through the thickets, spring 

All-feet from rock to rock in the ravine. 

Crouch in the fern and listen : still you hear them 

Belling behind you, all their big chests panting. 

Their red tongues lolled, the great hot breathing, — 

bloodhounds ! 

Bloodhounds ! 

ROLF 
\_At the window^ 

By Odin, see, yonder the dogs 
Of Ingimund ; he hath them in the leash ; 
Behind him, on a litter, they are bringing 
Arfi, the dwarf. 

EGIL 

Yorul ! Keep back the hounds ! 
Mercy ! Thou art no kin of theirs. They have 
No feud of blood with thee. Keep back the hounds ! 
Mercy ! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 63 

ERIC 
[Aside to men.~\ 
Still madder ! 

ROLF 

They are twoscore men, 
And we a handful ; shall we fight ? 

EGIL 

Fight, madmen ? 

Have ye not heard the hounds ? Keep back the 

hounds. 

Go forth and bind their leashes to the trees. 

Bind them, and guard them, every slave of you ! 

Go! Go! 

ROLF 

What ! fear their dogs } 

ERIC 

Yorul, his eyes — 

They burn ! 

YORUL 

Be patient, master ! 

EGIL 

Treachery ! 
You've lured 'em on. They come to dig it out ; 
They smell the wounds. Ye have betrayed me. 

YORUL 

Men, 

Come forth and let us bind the hounds. 



64 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 
[Swinging his whip.~\ 

Slaves ! cowards ! 
Traitors ! the lash shall teach you. 

[Striking Rolf J] 

Bind the hounds ! 

ROLF 

This goes too far. 

YORUL 
[Imploring.'] 
Come! 

EGIL 

Mercy ! Ah ! their fangs ! 
Their fangs ! Devils, go forth and bind the hounds. 

[Follows the men J lashing them.] 
ERIC 

By Loki ! 

YORUL 

[Aside.] 

Humour him. 

[The men go forth, whipped wildly by Egil, who sinks 
exhausted by the closed door.] 

EGIL 

Keep back the hounds — 
Their fangs ! 

YORUL 
[Outside^ 
Fear nothing ; we will bind them. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 65 



FRIDA 
[^Starts for the doorj] 



Yorul ! 



[Egil, rolling in her way, gazes at her, and rises , panting; 
she draws back.'] 

EGIL 
Thou art the maid of Yorul. 

FRIDA 

I am his. 

EGIL 
Who hid the wolf — he knows. 

FRIDA 

He knows. 

EGIL 

His maiden ! 
Shalt make a fair revenge. 

FRIDA 

Ah ! Save me, Yorul ! 

\^She faints.'] 

EGIL 
Yorul, a dear revenge ! 

[Lifting her in his arms, he bears her off, left.] 

A lair ! a lair ! 

^A pause ; sunset glows through the window; the outer door 
is partly opened by Rolf, who calls in.] 



66 FENRIS, THE IVOLF 

ROLF 

O Egil ! Ingimimd demands to enter 

And rest here for the night. Thy brother's wound 

Grows worse; they doubt his Hfe. Shall we resist 

them, 
Or welcome ? They are armed. — Egil ! — Not here 1 

\_Exif, closing the door. Another pause ; the roo7n grows 
dimmer; Egil slowly reenters , left.~\ 

EGIL 

Now will I sleep. — The time is strangely sweet, 
Blank, and untroubled. Soon it will be starlight. 
My limbs are filled with peace, mine ears with sounds 
Of brooks and breezy leafage murmurous. 
Mine eyes with slumber. Well, I will lie down 
And sleep. 

\_As Egil goes to the hearth^ enter Ingimund, Thordis, 
WuLDOR, and a number of Arfls men^ carrying a litter, 
on which lies Arfi ; these accompanied by Yorul, Rolf, 
Eric, and EgiVs men.~\ 

INGIMUND 

Slow ; bear him softly, Wuldor. Let 
The others stay without, and place our men 
Most carefully on guard. For this one night, 
Yorul, thy master's bann shall be suspended. 
The need is great. 

THORDIS 
\_By the litter. "^ 
Father, he hath grown paler. 



FENRISy THE WOLF 67 

INGIMUND 



Here set him down. 

EGIL 
[Gazing at Thordis.'\ 
Dreaming ! 

THORDIS 

Gently ! his side. 

WULDOR 

Lady, what more to do } 

ARFI'S MEN 

[Some kneel, some kiss her robe ; all give to her their eyes 
and hearts U7iconsciously.'\ 

What more .-* 



THORDIS 
YORUL 


Bring watei 


'Aside' 




Master, the hounds are tethered. 


Where is Frida } 


EGIL 




Dreaming ! still dreaming ! 




YORUL 




Frida 


7 


EGIL 
THORDIS 


Wake me not. 



Arfi ! O gentle earl, look up ! Let not 
Your ears be as the turf to our great sorrow. 
Arfi ! I love you ; live ! 



68 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

YORUL 
[To Ro/f.-] 

Hast thou seen Frida ? 

ROLF 

No. 

\_Exit Yorulf left; Egil approaches Arfls litter^ 

EGIL 
Will he die ? 

INGIMUND 

The virus of the wolf 
Corrupts his blood ; yet he may live. 

EGIL 

May live. 

WULDOR 

O God ! I could take heart to bear this woe 
But that the damned beast that bit my master 
Still breathes. 

INGIMUND 

I wounded him. 



WULDOR 

Yet he escaped us. 

ROLF 

You, Wuldor, but not us. The wolf is dead ; 
Behold his skin ! 

\Reenter Yorul. He staggers forward.] 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 69 

INGIMUND 
Who killed him ? 



ERIC 

Egil's man 
Yorul. 

INGIMUND 

Hail, Yorul ! This deed shall atone 
For much of thy defiance and thy master's. 
Well done ! 









YORUL 








\_Wildly:_ 




A lie ! a 


lie ! the wolf still lives. 


Lives ? 






ALL 




There ! 




YORUL 
EGIL 






'Crotiching backJ] 






Ai! 


anarch ! 



YORUL 
[ Grappling Egil, tears off his bandages^ 

Look ! Look, Ingimund ! 
The wounds : you struck them with your hunting- 
spear. 

INGIMUND 

Forehead and thigh ! 



70 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

YORUL 

He sprang on Arfi's horse, 
And bit his brother's throat — his murderer. 
There Hes his changeUng skin. He buried it 
Here in the ashes. 

THE MEN 
{^Falling away.'] 
Werewolf ! Werewolf ! 

INGIMUND 

Earl, 
Thou art accused of sin unnameable. 
Speak : art thou guilty .? 

EGIL 
\_Glares about him in fear arid rage."] 
Ai ! Ai ! anarch ! 

INGIMUND 

Demon ! 

YORUL 

Ah, Frida ! Master — Frida ! 

ROLF 

What of her ? 
Not dead .? 

YORUL 

No, no ; would God she were, and I ! 
Frida ! 

IFxit, left^ 

INGIMUND 
Destroy the wolf. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 7 1 

THORDIS 
\_To Wuldory who is about to attack Egil with a spear ^ 

Stop, earl ! Your master ; 
He has heard all. 

ARFI 
\_Raises his body painfully on the litter. '\ 

My brother — Egil — spare him. 

WULDOR 

But 'tis a werewolf ! 

INGIMUND 

He has sought your life. 

ARFI 

The life he sought to take I give to him. 

My strength is little ; if you love me, spare him. 

WULDOR 
'Tis madness ! 

THORDIS 

Nay, 'tis mercy, but to you 
Reason is vengeance. Father, look ; he sinks 
Again. Will you deny the prayer of him — 

\Lowering her voice.'] 

Perchance who dies. 

ARFI 

\_Eai?ttly.] 
Egil! 



72 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

INGIMUND 

Egil shall live ; 
So much I grant thee, Arfi, but no more. 
Henceforth thy brother shall be cast in chains, 
Until the demon-beast that plagues his body- 
Is exorcised and tamed. — Lay on the chains. 

\_As the men approach with fetters , Egil seizes a chain from 
oiie, andy springing fearfully to Thordis^s side, there 
crouches and lifts it to her.~\ 

EGIL 
Not those — but thou ! 

\Thordis puts the chain upon Egil.'] 



ACT SECOND 



ACT II 

Scene I : A prison chamber, dim, built of stone 

On the right stands a highjramed tapestry, the design partly 
worked; beside it, on a table, several harps and instru- 
ments of music. On the left, extending centre, the half- 
completed model of a structure resembling the temple in 
Act I, Scene I ; beside it, wooden blocks and miniature 
beams ; in front of it a stone tablet, upon which Egil — 
stooped, with an instrument in his hand — is laboriously 
carving runes. Behind him stands Arfi, at times guid- 
ing the hand of his brother, who is evidently being 
overco7ne by tveariness, against which he struggles for 
concentration. Finally EgiVs head droops, his hand 
falls, and his body sinks prone. At the door, Thordis 
enters. 

THORDIS 
Asleep ? 

ARFI 
Quite, quite outworn. 



THORDIS 
The runes ? 



The task is done ? 



ARFI 

He has mastered them. 
75 



76 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 
\_Sighs unconsciously^ 

How swift he learns ! 

ARFI 

Yes, hourly he hath grown through the strange 

months 
Since Ingimund entrusted him to us 
To dispossess the beast that plagues him. 

THORDIS 

Look 
Now where he lies and dreams. 

ARFI 

There lies a block 
Of chaos, for our wills to fuse and kindle 
Into a world, glowing with vital forms 
Of law and loveliness. Yea, Thordis, we — 
We are his being's seasons, you and I ; 
The sun and moon, the starshine and the dew. 
Of this stark heath and breeding moor of passion, 
And the large jurisdiction of our love 
Must ripen there the temperate growths of reason, 
And stablish the mind's palaces. 

THORDIS 

You speak 
In sadness. 

ARFI 

Nay, in awe. The thought grows vast 
And awful. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF jy 

THORDIS 

So ? I do not feel it, I ! 
I feel as elemental as the air, 
That holds secure within its crystal veins 
As many thousand summers and their blooms 
As the earth may yearn for. 

ARFI 

'Tis because you are 
Bounteous as the air, that from your presence all 
Take breath and power. Since you elected me 
Beside the altar stone, even I, that was 
A warped and ailing mannikin of woe, 
Prickling with sensibilities and pangs, 
Have felt myself exalted and at peace 
With this poor twisted mask of torse and limb, 
So simple it seems, so sane, so actual. 
That what I am was your immortal friend 
Elsewhere. 

THORDIS 

And have you felt the same ? We two 
Have walked eternal mountains hand in hand, 
And watched the morning of our little lives 
Break over our birth-hour, and we shall stand 
Together at the sundown, and behold 
The passion clouds of death grow pale. 



ARFI 



We shall pass on together. 

[^In his sleepy Egil moans.'] 



And then 



78 FENR/S, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 

We forget ; 
We must not leave him as we found him, love. 

ARFI 

The wolf torments him still in sleep. 

THORDIS 

Poor dreamer ! 

And have you told him yet we are to wed 

To-morrow ? 

ARFI 

No ; I dreaded to rouse up 
The old, jealous hate ; for since my wound has healed, 
He seems to have forgotten that old feud, 
And looks on you and me no more, methinks. 
As keepers of his prison-house, but rather 
As his accomplices, that smuggle in 
Subtle devices for his liberation. 
To comprehend the use of which he expends 
All of his time and powers. 

THORDIS 

Accomplices : 
It may be so ; for he, that used to hang 
With looks of fire upon my merest motion. 
Will gaze beyond me now with eyes that gloat 
Blank as a miser's on some buried hoard. 

ARFI 

The gold he hoards is knowledge, and 'tis well, 
For that preoccupation may assuage 



FENRIS, THE IVOLF 79 

The pain he else might feel, when he shall learn 
Our joy to-morrow. 

\_Egil cries out again ^ 

THORDIS 

Yearning heart ! how deep 
It labours still in pain ! Let us take care 
To acquaint him gently with our happiness. 
We must divert him. — Why, what's here } 

ARFI 
\Smiling^ 



We're architects. 



A temple ; 

THORDIS 

He helped you build it } 
ARFI 



Am helping him. 
To tame the wolf .'* 



THORDIS 
But how shall this avail 

ARFI 



His genius is destruction ; 
His breath and bondage — to annihilate ; 
And therefore Egil must be shown to build 
And not destroy ; of mean, chaotic things — 
These blocks — to make admired harmony, 
And shape, however rude, some tangible 
Earnest of his constructive will. 



8o 


FENRIS, THE WOLF 






THORDIS 






I see; 




Who would have thought of it but you ? 


Not I! 


Hark! 


'Egil moans. \ 

EGIL 
'Low, in his skep.'_ 




Freyja ! 


I 

THORDIS 

Did he call ? 

EGIL 

Freyja ! 






THORDIS 


That name ! 


You heard ? 


ARFI 




The 


goddess Spring's. 
THORDIS 




To pray ? 


You taught him, then, 

ARFI 


Not I. 






EGIL 






'Starting to his feet'_ 






Freyja ! 






THORDIS 






Can this be Egil ? 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 8 1 

EGIL 
[ Crouched, pacing to and fro. '\ 

Free me, Freyja! Frore am I, frost-bit; 
Go we together into greenwood glad ! 
Mirk under moon-mist mad will meet thee, 
Hunt thee from hiding, thy heart-beats hear. 

ARFI 
It is the wolf that wakes, while Egil slumbers. 

EGIL 
\_Looking, with closed eyes, as toward a height."] 

Free me, Freyja ! Fair art thou, fro ward ; 
Go we together into greenwood glad ! 
Burns thine eyebeam bright as the bitch-wolf's; 
Longeth Fenris in thy lair to lie. 

THORDIS 
What other name spake he ? 

ARFI 

I could not hear„ 

EGIL 
[^In sudden terror, seeking to fiyJ] 
Ai ! anarch ! anarch ! Ulfr ! 

THORDIS 

Wake him. 

ARFI 

Wait; 
What this reveals to us may prove of help 
To him. 



82 FEATRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 
\_Defiantly.'] 
Oathless am I ! 

THORDIS 

But see ! he suffers. 

EGIL 

I — I am Allfather ! 

[Swaying with anguish y as under the blows of a scourge, he 
sinks upon the floor ^ overwhelmed and quivering^ 

Oathless — am — I — 

THORDIS 
Egil, awake ! awake ! 'Tis nothing. 

EGIL 
\_Gradually wakings rises to his knees 7\ 

Freyja ! 

THORDIS 

No goddess I, poor Egil, but your friend 
Thordis, the maiden. 

EGIL 

She thou art — the same 
Even now that saved me. {^Starting.'l What is that ? 

ARFI 

Your brother. 

EGIL 

My brother he is tall and beautiful, 
Happy and glorious, and I hate him for't. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 83 

ARFI 

Nay, you have hated me, but not for that. 
Look on me, Egil. 

EGIL 

Arfi! 

THORDIS 

'Twas a dream. 

EGIL 

What's that — a dream ? Is it a mist that steals 
Between the eyelids, filling them with shap 
Begot of its own vapour, — shadows t lies } 
If so, which shapes are dreams — your forms, or those. 
Those even now that beheld me, where I crouched 
Among the crater's hoar crusts, numb with cold, 
Yet writhing in the brassy flames, that eat 
And crawled into my vitals ? Mine ? No, no ! 
That was not I, that nameless thing, not I ! 
Say " No." 

ARFI 

It was the wolf. You fell asleep, 
Wearied, and dreamed of him. 

EGIL 

If that be sleep, 
Then let me sleep no more. O friends, sweet friends. 
You that have weaned and reared me from this thing, 
Promise I nevermore may droop mine eyes 
But you will prod them open. 



84 -FEIVRIS, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 

You forget 

How you have grown. Soon you will be once more 

But oh ! how milder, mightier, than before — 

Egil, the hunter. 

EGIL 

Till then, Egil the hunted ! 

Thordis, could I meet — as many a time 
I've met within the forest, face to face. 
My quarry, and destroyed it — could I so 
Confront this inward beast and grapple him 

To the death-struggle, — ha ! but with a dream ! 
A spectral wolf, that lurks ever in the dusk 
And tangled thickets of my brain and will, 
A wraith invulnerable, that makes his lair 
In my bosom, that, when I would strike, 

1 lacerate myself, draw life — myself 

The beast, the bait, the hunter and the hunted ! 

THORDIS 

Nay, you are still the hunter, he the quarry. 

Only to track him hath grown harder, for 

He hath grown duskier as your mind hath dawned. 

And can no more take shape, as he was wont. 

In tangible horror to the eyes of all. 

Yet we will track him — you and I. 

EGIL 

But how } 

THORDIS 

With flaming torches we will set ablaze 
His ancient wilderness, till through the gap 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 85 

Of sundering boughs the quiet stars shall mock him, 
Naked and overwhelmed. 

EGIL 

But where ? What boughs ? 
What fire ? 

THORDIS 
[ Taking up, among the instrutnents, a reed-pipe 7[ 

The way is wild ; this pipe shall lead us. 
Play, Arfi ! 

[^Sitting beside the block temple, Arfi begins to play upon the 

reedJ] 
EGIL 

But this pipe — 

THORDIS 

Do you not hear 
Her voice alluring us ? It is a wood-sprite. 
The elf-child Harmony. 

EGIL 

Where can she lead us } 
This is a prison. 

THORDIS 

She can lead us forth 
Into the beauteous world. Hark! even now — 
Do you not see ? — the walls are crumbling, bright 
With ivy-dew and morning. — Don't you hear } 
The birds ! the birds ! — Now, Egil, now your hand ! 



86 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

Now on the dance with me ! We'll follow her 
On — to the chase ! 

\_Taking hands, they dance whilst Arfi blows the mellow pipe. 
Eager, impetiwzis, Egil beco7nes kindled by the sound ajid 
motion till, in the midst, dropping Thordis^s ha?id, he 
g7'opes toward the 2vall.'\ 

EGIL 

The chase ! the chase ! the chase ! 
Ho, torches for the chase ! 

ARFI 

[_Stops playing, and rises. "] 

A metaphor 
Transforms him. 

EGIL 

Torches ! 

[^Stumbling against the blocks."] 

What is this > 
ARFI 

Our temple ; 
We've left it uncompleted. 

EGIL 

This ! — the chase ! 
To sit block-building like a little child ? 
To ask vague questions that await strange answers ? 
No ! do not mock me ! Summon the great hunt. 
Hand me a torch into my gripping palm, 
Point where to leap, and let the whirlwinds sing 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 8/ 

And the great jungles crash in conflagration. 
The wolf ! reveal the wolf ! that I may rend 
The demon limb from limb. 

ARFI 

He rages blind 
Now in your eyes. 

EGIL 

[ Co7itrolli7ig himself J shudders^ 
Emancipate me ! 

ARFI 

Come; 

Here let us sit, as we were boys again, 

And pile our blocks. 

THORDIS 

Go, Egil ! Build with him. 
The forest-sprite has led you to her temple. 

\Goi7igto the tapestry frame ^ while Egil joins Arf, she begins 
to work upon the embroidery^ observiftg from time to time 
their block-building.'] 

EGIL 

A temple ! Still they mock me. — 'Tis a toy. 

ARFI 

Why, true, a toy, and yet a temple, if 

The mind bring incense here, and the bow'd heart 

Make sacrifice. 

EGIL 

We are not pigmies, we. 
To creep under this gable. 



88 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

ARFI 

Are we not ? 
Are we so great ? Who hath not stood beneath 
A sparrow's egg-shell, speckled o'er with stars, 
And dwindled there with wonder ? Who so small 
But hath, to quench desire, drunk of the sun 
Or set his parch'd lips to the moon's pale rim ? 
So great, so small, neither and both, our stature 
Waxes and wanes, inconstant as a shadow 
'Twixt night and noon and night. This temple, lad, 
Will be as cramped or spacious as the spirit 
Which consecrates it. 

EGIL 

Dark ! Thou speakest darkness. 

ARFI 

Listen ! This house of toy-wood is the altar 
Where you must supplicate the immortal gods 
For freedom. 

EGIL 

So ; the immortal gods ! What, then, 
Are they that I should sue to them for freedom ? 

ARFI 

They are the powers of the inevitable 

To whom we mortals must submit our wills 

Or perish. 

\_EgiPs structure falls. "^ 

EGIL 
Ah ! it breaks. What made it fall .? 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 89 

ARFI 

A god : the same that holds these prison walls 
Stone upon stone ; the same that mortises 
The rock-seams of the solid hills, and hangs 
Aloft the glittering roof-tree of the world. — 
You builded weak, and the god chided you. 

EGIL 

Are then the gods so near ? 

ARFI 

In all our acts 
We feel the might of their invisible hands, 
But only in prayer behold them face to face. 

EGIL 
In prayer ? 

ARFI 

The abnegation of our wills 
For theirs, the affirmation of their laws, 
Which to the god's "Thou must" answers " I will." 

EGIL 

And that is freedom } 

ARFI 

That alone is freedom. 

EGIL 

I will be free then, Arfi. Why, 'tis simpler 
Than playing with these blocks. I will be free ! 
Teach me to pray. 

ARFI 

I cannot. 



90 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 

Teach me, Thordis. 

[She shakes her head and smiles^ 

Alas ! who will ? 

ARFI 

Yourself alone. 

EGIL 

But how ? 
How may I know when I have learned to pray ? 

ARFI 

When, in the full sight of your goal of yearning. 
Your spirit, pausing, cries out to the gods — 
*^ This is my heart's desire — take it — 'tis yours ! " 
That instant of renunciation will 
Be prayer and freedom both and the wolf's passing- 
bell. 

[^Enter Wuldor ; he goes to Arfi and speaks aside.'] 

Admit him. 

WULDOR 

But — 

ARFI 

Why not .? 

WULDOR 

His looks are wild, 

His words were bitter. When he spoke of thee. 

He laughed and scowled. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 91 

ARFI 

Say we will come to him. 
[Exit Wtildor.'] 

THORDIS 
[ Whom Arfi approaches^ with a warning gesture, ^ 
Who is it ? 

ARFI 
\Aside^^ 

Yorul ; he has asked to speak 
With Egil. 

THORDIS 
Ought we to admit him ? 

ARFI 

It is wise, 
For so may Egil measure what he is 
By what he was. Look ; he has knelt to pray. 
The time is fitting ; we will leave him so. 

THORDIS 
[Leaving the tapestry. "l 

How noble he looks ! Shall we not tell him now 
About to-morrow "i 

ARFI 

We will tell him all 
When he has prayed. 

[Exeunt.l 



92 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 
\_Solus.'\ 

To pray — to pray is simple 
" This is my heart's desire — take it — 'tis yours ! " 
And so — emancipation. O you gods, 
If through these prison walls you may behold 
The mock rites of this childish temple, hear me ! 
Knowledge — knowledge, that is my heart's desire. 
That is the soul-inebriating cup 
Which hath transformed me half unto your image 
And still hath drugg'd the other brutish half 
To lethargy and dreams. To know, to learn, 
And evermore to learn ! To watch new worlds 
Kindling from out the dark of consciousness. 
Fresh firmaments gathering from drop to drop 
Of common morning dew ; to be upborne 
On the light-trailing wings of understanding 
And scan far off the former crawling-place 
And wolf-haunt of the spirit, to spread those wings 
At one's own will and mount into the sun, 
Searing the mind with ecstasy — you gods ! 
That is my heart's desire : take it from me ! 
Take it, 'tis yours, for it hath come from you, 
But when of that you have bereft me, leave 
Freedom instead, and innocence. 

\Enter Yorul.] 

What's there t 
Speak. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 93 

YORUL 
\As Egil starts up, bows himself at his feet.'] 

Thy betrayer. 

EGIL 

Oh, art thou a god ? 
And art thou come in answer to my prayer ? 

YORUL 
Master — 

EGIL 

I know thy voice. 

YORUL 
[Turning upward his face i\ 

Destroy me. 

EGIL 

{Dreamily.^ 

Yorul ! 

Yorul, my liegeman ! 

YORUL 

Once thou named me so ; 
Once and the world was sweet — once and 'twas 
sweet. 

EGIL 
Why have they sent thee, Yorul } 



YORUL 

Who, my lord } 



94 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 

Thou art their messenger ; be swift ; declare 
Their grace, or doom. — Shall I go free ? 

YORUL 

Destroy me 

With blows of steel, not of remorse. None sent me. 

Myself hath driven me here, here to the cell 

Wherein my treachery consigned my master. 

Hear me ! 

EGIL 

I hear thee, Yorul. 



YORUL 

Since that night. 
That bitter sunset when she — since that night 
Till now, I have not left the forest, nor 
Spoken with friend or foe ; but I have stopped 
My heart in the deep silentness of trees 
Till it hath burst for pain. My wrong and thine, 
Thy wrong and mine — I dared to balance them. 
To let my woe condone my treachery 
And prove it justified, as if my heart 
Were not itself thy vassal, and its pangs 
Feudal to thy desires. And so I sinned 
Until to-day. 

EGIL 

These are enigmas. Speak ! 
How have the gods made answer to my prayer ? 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 95 

YORUL 

To-day I met with peasants in the wood 
Who drove their herds of swine all garlanded 
With green arbutus. Hailing me, they cried, 
" Why come ye not with us to Odin's stone 
Against to-morrow's wedding-day ? " " Who weds ? " 
Quoth I. ** Our priestess Thordis weds the dwarf ; 
Come with us ! " Then I bit my arm and vowed 
That I would come to thee and speak my shame, 
And say, " Destroy me, lord, or let me serve thee." 

EGIL 

Peasants they were; they said — what was't they 
said } 

YORUL 

" To-morrow our priestess Thordis " — 

EGIL 

" Weds the dwarf! " 

Those were thy words ; thou shalt not change them 

now. 

YORUL 

I would not change them. 

EGIL 

Wouldst thou not } Well said ! 
" To-morrow the maiden Thordis " — nay, not so ; 
" To-morrow our priestess Thordis — weds the dwarf'' 
And all their swine were garlanded. — Was it so .'* 

YORUL 

Even so, and I — 



96 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 
Even so ! 



YORUL 

I vowed to come 



EGIL 
[Laughing.'] 

Knowledge — knowledge — that was my heart's 
desire ! 

YORUL 
And make confession — 

EGIL 

Why, here have I sat 
And licked the crumbs of knowledge from his hand 
As I had been his beagle ; and for what ? 
To grow ! to be transmuted from a wolf 
Into my brother's ape ! To evolve a mind 
That knows at last the rapture it must lose. 
Oh, noble ! 

YORUL 

And make confession of my crime 
As of my love. 

EGIL 
[^Beginning to pace back and forth ^ 
Ha! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 97 

YORUL 

For I loved her well, 
More than I dreamed. Love leads us from the truth 
And blinds us to ourselves. 

EGIL 
Ah! 



YORUL 
Beheld that deed — forgive me ! 

EGIL 



So when I 



Ah! 



YORUL 

I spake 
Those traitor's words that damned thee to this cell ; 
For I was mad. O God ! the memory 
Maddens me now. 

EGIL 
Ha! 

YORUL 

Look not on me so, 
For I am weak and passionate. Take care ! 
The truth deserts me ! — Nay, forgive me, master, 
'Tis love is falsehood. 

EGIL 

Ah! 

H 



98 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

YORUL 

I am thy liegeman, 
And what was mine was thine to take, unquestioned. 

EGIL 

Ah! 

YORUL 

Yet my soul would question, and I claimed her 
In spite of thee, for that same night — 

\_Z>raws Clearer and whispers^ 

I killed her. 
Mine ! She is mine ! Thou canst not touch her 

now. 
She lies out yonder with the virgin stars 
White and inviolable. Dead, she is mine 
Whom, living, 'twas thy title not to spare. 
Master, pity my triumph ! Leave me yet 
This foible of my arrogance, for which 
Henceforth I am thy loyal slave, to do 
Or die for thee. 

EGIL 
Wouldst serve me — ah } 



YORUL 



EGIL 

Seems thou canst kill. 



Say how ! 



FEN-RIS, THE WOLF 99 

YORUL 
Speak but that word. 
\They look long at each other. '\ 

EGIL 



Go ! — Stay ! 

YORUL 



'Tis spoken. 



What more ? 

EGIL 

Thine oath ! — for sometimes, Yorul, 

The resolute grow sick with afterthought, 

And hot will cool — thine oath, to shun my sight, 

To speak not nor be spoken with, until 

'Tis done. 

YORUL 

\_Raising his right arm.~\ 

By Frida's cold and virgin hand. 
To shun my master's sight, to speak not, nor 
Be spoken with, until 'tis done. 

EGIL 

'Tis sworn ; 
Go now. 

[ Yorul covers his face, and exit.^ 

To-morrow she shall wed — not him. 
O dupe of lovers ! Bond-slave to a dwarf ! 
O gods, your fool ! your fool ! 

[ Throwing himself down beside the temple of blocks, he de- 
stroys it, insensatCy and crouches^ laughing, amid the 
ruins.~\ 



.. Gt G. 



100 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

Scene II 

[ The curtain rises presently upon the saine : a taper burns 

low. Thordis, seated with a harp, is playing ; near 

her Egil stands amid the block rui?is. Ceasing to play, 

Thordis rises, looks at Egil (uiho stands oblivious^, 

passes silently to the wi?tdow aiid looks out. 

THORDIS 

The moon has set. 

EGIL 
\^Stirs as from a trance^ 

Can, then, the eternal cease ? 
That perfect architecture pale in air ? 
You built again my temple of sweet sounds 
And peopled it with deathless visitants. 
And shed around their forms a nameless grace 
Medicinal as moonlight, and as calm. 
I walked with them, and they discoursed with me. 
Almost it seemed myself was one of them. — 
And then you ceased. 

THORDIS 

'Tis beauty's paradox 
To prove itself immortal — and to die. 

EGIL 

Die } Must this godUke transmutation lapse 
Into the lurking wolf again ? Ah, no ! 
That music died in labour, and its yearning 
Hath borne a man-child, that lives after it 
Here in my soul. Henceforth I nevermore 



FENRIS, THE WOLF lOI 

May be that groping hypocrite of prayer 

Whom you uplifted from this ruined altar, 

With passion-sealed eyes seeking the light 

Of freedom. No, henceforth I shall be strong, 

Clear-eyed, serene, and dauntless. See ! I take 

Your hand and bid you go from me. — Thou only, 

Thou art my heart's desire. See ! I renounce thee. 

Go from me, for I love you. Leave me ! Yet 

You leave me not alone ; that passionate presence 

Which the blind wrath and hunger for possession 

Cries out for from my clay — of that I am 

Bereft indeed ; but losing that, I gain 

The stellar part of you, the exceeding light 

Of fellowship and human sympathy. — 

Leave me ! I love you. 

THORDIS 

Is this Egil speaks .? 

EGIL 
Egil, your lover, I ! 

THORDIS 

The gods are mighty, 
And music is the lordliest. O Egil, 
Thou art emancipated, and to-morrow 
They will fling wide thy prison doors. — Good night ! 

[Giving him the harp.'\ 

Keep here thy god with thee. 

[At the door, as they clasp hands^ 

Brother ! — Good night. 

[Exit^ 



102 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 

Sister ! — Emancipated ! Mine at last 

Freedom and innocence ! The occult beast 

That crouched beside the sweet wells of my spirit 

Is exorcised at last. — To-morrow dawn 

I shall go forth and taste the wild, spring air, 

And gather the hamlet children in the woods 

To pluck arbutus for her wedding-day, 

Her wedding-day — and his. I have renounced her. 

Emancipated — but I have renounced her 

Even for that, for freedom. What were freedom 

Without — his ! his ! forever his own ! And I 

Am happy, rapt, triumphant.? His! What power 

Hath wrought in me this ignominy .? 

\Lifting the harp?[ 

Thou! 

Wast thou, imperious instrument ! Wast thou, 

Delirious god ! 

\Fiercely he plucks out several strings^ 

Thou hast decoyed me ! 

\Pausing^ 

Still, 

There's Yorul ; Yorul's true. 

[ Wre?iching with both hands the harp^s frame ^ he breaks it 

in halves^ and exultant, raises them above his head, 

with a great breath ^^ 

Emancipated ! 



ACT THIRD 



ACT III 

Scene: A forest glade 

On the left, a gree7i bank and a pool, back of which is a 
thicket ; on the right, a vista, beneath boughs, of a dis- 
tant volcano, rising through the wet light of dawn. 

EGIL'S VOICE 
l^Outside^ 
Help — O! help — O! 

SHRILL VOICES 
\_Outside.^ 
A troll ! a troll ! a troll ! 

[JSnter, right, Egil, running. He is completely surrounded 
and swarmed over by little children in bright spring 
garb. One little girl has climbed upon his shoulder^ 
where she clings^ 

THE CHILDREN 

Heigh ! hold him fast. Troll ! troll ! 

EGIL 

Help, gentle greenwood ! 
Am I but now escaped men's prison walls 
To fall into this ambush of thine elves ! 
Save me, you wrens and warblers ! Fetch me wings ! 

105 



I06 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

THE CHILDREN 
\^Taki?ig hafidsj dance about him^ singing^ 

Thrice, thrice, 
Thrice around thee ! 
Star-wise 

Our steps surround thee ; 
Now yield thee, yield thee, proud Sir Troll ! 
Body and soul 

Our spells have bound thee. 

EGIL 

Thrice, thrice, 
Thrice around me ! 
Star-wise 

Your steps surround me. 
Now yield I me and pay my toll — 
Body and soul 

As ye have bound me. 

\He lies down^ pretending death ; each child places his foot 
upofi hini^ with a shout. At this he springs up, laugh- 
ing^ seizes a little boy and girl, and, seating himself on 
a log, places them on his kiiees. The others cluster 
about him?^ 

Ha, sirrah ! is this maid thy sister } 



THE LITTLE BOY 

She's mine. 



Yes, 



EGIL 

What wouldst thou do if I should steal her } 



FENRIS, THE IVOLF 1 07 

THE LITTLE BOY 



I'd kill you. 

EGIL 

Ha ! wouldst let him ? 

THE LITTLE GIRL 



He is my brother. 

EGIL 



Oh, of course ; 
'Tis a brother's right 



To kill, I see. 

THE LITTLE GIRL 

In play, you know. 
EGIL 



In play. 

THE CHILDREN 

Come play ! Come play ! 

EGIL 

What now } 

THE CHILDREN 
\_Severally.~\ 

Fox and wild geese ! 
Glass-mountain, Spinning-fairy, Cat-skin, Crows, 
Frog-bridegroom ! 

THE LITTLE GIRL 

/ know what ! 

EGIL 
\_Takes both her hands, smiling^ 

Well, what ? 



I08 FEN R IS, THE WOLF 

THE LITTLE GIRL 

I'll be 
Red Riding-hood, and you shall be the wolf. 

\_Egil drops her hands and rises.^ 
THE LITTLE BOY 

I'm the good hunter and these are my men. 

EGIL 

[ Vassal- like to the little boy/^ 

Beseech you, sir, may I not play your part ? 
I'd fain be the good hunter. 

THE LITTLE BOY 

Granted, earl. 
I'd fainer be the wolf. 

\To the children.'] 

Come ! gather your flowers. 

EGIL 

And when you've filled your laps and aprons up 
With wind-flowers and arbutus, bring them here. 
Mind ! 'tis our lady Thordis' wedding-day. 

THE CHILDREN 

[Running from the little boy?^ 

The wolf ! the wolf ! 

\_Passing left into the wood, they are seen for some time gath- 
ering flowers and watching, in their game, the stealthy 
approachments of the little boy.] 

EGIL 

O freedom ! happy world ! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 109 

Hark, how they laugh, with bubbling undersong 
Sweetening the over-choir of the birds. 
And I — I, too, can laugh ; can loose my soul 
Free-wing'd into the open with a cry 
Unfetter'd as a lark. 

\_Looking up into the tree- tops ^ he laughs againj] 

O rarest laughter ! 
O medicine of the long-languish'd mind ! 
O welling of the heart's sweet waters up, 
Washing the acid tang of cynic woe 
Sere from the spirit's lips. O benison 
Of innocence ! And have I lived before 
This hour .? Is not this day creation's dawn 1 

\_Flinging himself upon the dank.'] 

These children, with their lifted flowerlike faces, 
These flowers, with their dewy childlike eyes. 
These parting vapours on the golden hills, 
Yea, all these leaves of little twinkling grass 
Whose roots strike down to tears of yesterday — 
Now shine like things immaculate, new-born. 
And I, and they, like issue of one mother. 
The offspring of an universal birth. 
Oh, what exceeding power hath loveliness 
For her beholder! 

[ Where he lies thus rapt in the sylvan landscape, the first 
sunlight breaks through the wood, and by it the Shadow 
of a man is throivn sharply, from the left, across the re- 
clining fo7'm of Fgii. At the same time, fi^om the right, 
is heard Arfi^s voice, singing.] 



no FEIVRIS, THE WOLF 

THE VOICE OF ARFI 

Thy heart, love, give or take 

Or cast away ; 
Mine shall not break 
Forever and a day ; 
For lovers kiss their mates where thoughts are kind. 
Love lives within the mind — the mind — the mind. 

\_Slowly having rise?t to his feet, Egil perceives the human 
shadow and starts.] 

EGIL 

Yorul ! 

[^The shadow recedes, left, from the scene ^ 

Yorul, stay ! 
Come back ! 

THE VOICE OF ARFI 

The redstart and the rose, 

The clear sunrise. 
What mortal knows 

Their grace to immortalise } 
Seek them again, where Death can never find. 
By love, within the mind — the enamour'd mind. 

EGIL 

It must not be. — Yorul ! — What, I 
Was mad, who now am sane and innocent. 
Come back ! It shall not — Yorul ! 



THORDIS 
\_Calls outside^ 



Egil! 



FENRIS, THE WOLF in 

EGIL 

\_Fausing.'] 

She ! 

\_Enter, right, Thordis and Arfi. They are dressed in 
white, the dwarf being quaintly garlanded. They are 
followed by Wuldor. Thordis goes gaily toward Egil^ 
extending both her hands.~\ 

THORDIS 

Deserter ! runagate ! — Look, Arfi, here's 

Our truant brought to bay. And will not yield ! 

And will not even surrender up his eyes 

To his imploring gaolers. — O proud brother ! 

Not even a hand-clasp in return for all 

Thy struck-off shackles "i 

\_Taking her hands, he still looks off left 7^ 

EGIL 
Lady! 

THORDIS 

Still no eyes 

For mortals } Quite enamoured of a wood-sprite } 

Alas ! we've broke a tryst and she has flown ! 

Call her: perchance she'll hear. 

EGIL 
\_Looking upon Thordis."] 

Lady ! — 

\_Quickly then turning away, speaks under his breath to 

Wuldor.] 

A word, 
A word ! 



112 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

ARFI 
He's deeply moved. 

THORDIS 

He's deeply changed. 
Saw you his eyes when they turned full on me, 
And he said, " Lady " ? There were tears in them. 
Tears, and yet through them glowed the ancient fire. 
Not now in wrath, but tenderness. 

EGIL 
\_Aside to WuldorJ] 

Overtake him ; 
The oath he swore to Egil — tell him — Egil 
Now countermands. Bid him do nothing ; go ! 

[Watches Wuldor off, left. Arfi, quietly looking at him, 
speaks to Thordis.~\ 

ARFI 
You love him dearly } 

THORDIS 
Very dearly. 

EGIL 

Brother, 
Thordis, your hands again ! 

ARFI 
\_Smili?tg.'\ 

Have you despatched 
Wuldor to find the lady wood-sprite .'' 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 113 

EGIL 

Friends, 

Were we less deeply known to one another, 

And chiefly I to you — what thing I was, 

What now, perchance, am grown — well, I suppose 

'Twere custom, were it not ? to wreathe our Hps 

With honey-blossoms of superfluous 

Congratulation : you are to be wed. 

And I am free, and my emancipation 

Owes all itself to you. — " Heaven be with you ! " 

" I thank you well," " Joy is to me ! " — But these 

Things being said, and rung with all the chimes 

Of truth, I beg of you let now these hands 

Speak the unsaid remainder for our hearts 

In silence. 

\_The three hold hands ^ 

ARFI 
\After a pause ?\ 

Vaster powers than we have wrought 
This friendship. Whom the gods join hand in hand 
Their fates thenceforth are mingled. 

THORDIS 
\Loosening her hands with a laugh.'] 

So, dear lord. 
Be merry ! 

ARFI 

\_Speaks low, with a smile.'] 

Have I not divinest reason 1 
This is the place. 



114 FEiVR/S, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 
Arfi ! The sacred pool ? 

ARFI 

The pool of Freyja — there ! The wood-folk call it 
Her mirror, for they say that once i' the year, 
Ever at May-day, the fresh goddess comes 
To sit beside it with her elves, whilst they 
Comb her bright hair. 

THORDIS 
And then she peers within it ? 

ARFI 

As you do now. — Sweetest, good-bye ! 

THORDIS 

Good-bye .<* 
But where are you going } 

ARFI 

The wood pathway to heaven. 
I'm going to hasten that laggard priest, your father, 
To make him make you mine. 

EGIL 

Stop ! You're alone. 

ARFI 

Well? 

EGIL 
\_Eml?arrassed.~\ 
Will it be now ? 



FENRIS, THE WOLF II5 

ARFI 

Am I not written large 
With bridal runes ? Hang not these garlands thick 
As invocations from an inn-house gable ? 
" Here light ye down, fair guests ! Light down, light 

down, 
Dear lady, at the sign of the * Green Bridegroom / "* — 
Farewell, sweetheart. This day is clothed in green 
For joy. I will return with Ingimund 
As swift as longing. 

EGIL 

Stay ; we must be wise. 
You must not leave me here alone with her. 

ARFI 
Why ? Are you not my brother ? 

EGIL 

I am he 
Who vowed against you hatred and revenge. 

ARFI 
Also you are my brother. 

EGIL 

I am he 
That with a brutish fang struck at your life. 

ARFI 
Good-bye, dear brother. 



Il6 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 

Wait ! Was I not then 
Your brother — then ? Will not a brother lust ? 
A brother covet ? Are not beauty, grace, 
Lures to a brother's eyes ? Are brothers' souls 
By nature kin ? Or is that name a spell 
To render heart and mind innocuous 
That else might murder, ravish ? Oh, be not 
So rash as put your trust in me because 
I am your brother. 

ARFI 

\_Returnmg to Egil, embraces him^ 

Lad, keep this with you. 
I would not be so rash as 7tot to trust 
In you a power more august than yourself 
For all the joy and honour which this day 
Holds out to me. — Adieu ! This day is joy's. 

\_Exit, right. '\ 
EGIL 

Now we're alone. How is it with you — sister .? 

THORDIS 
Strangely, my brother ; how is it with you ? 

EGIL 

OGod! 

How many waking dawns and desperate nights 
Have I, in sharp imagination, moaned 
For this sweet hour, to stand — as now 
I stand — alone with you, in liberty. 



FEIVRIS, THE WOLF 117 

THORDIS 
And now that time has come. 

\_She reaches to him her hand ; he does not take it?^ 

EGIL 

Now it is come, 

But ah ! how sternly different is this truth 

From all I dreamed. Can this be freedom } See ! 

What hangs upon these arms } They wear no chains. 

Why, then, do they not catch you breathless up 

And bear you hence in rapture ? In your eyes — 

Lo ! veilless I behold your virgin soul ! 

And yet she does not fly, nor I pursue. 

THORDIS 
What should she fear } 

EGIL 

What should she not } — These eyes 
Renouncing hers ; these hands that dare not press 
Her vesture's hem, lest they consume like coals 
That robed sanctuary ; these desires 
That burn around her like the hedge of flames 
Round Brunhild's bower ; this waiting dawn, this hush 
And solitary wood — What fear } Herself, 
Herself that, all resolved to beauty, breathes 
Herself unto these eyes, these hands, this dawn. 
These leash'd desires ! 

THORDIS 

You love me, you would say. 
Why should you not } 



Il8 FENRIS, THE WOLF 



EGIL 

I have renounced you. 

THORDIS 



Me, 



But not your love for me. Surely that still 
Is happiness. 

EGIL 

Why, yes, I must be happy; 
For this is pain, and pain is very sweet 
To those who love ; and this is bitter sweet 
To breathe the name of *' sister " 'gainst your cheek 
Where but so late the sigh of "sweetheart" stole 
Warm from my brother's lips. — O lure and vision ! 
Do you not see .-^ I have climbed up to you 
Out of the rank abyss ; this is the verge : 
One word, one look, from you must hurl me back, 
Or save me. 

THORDIS 

Look. 

EGIL 

How have you dared to trust me } 

THORDIS 

When have we ever ceased to trust you } 



EGIL 

THORDIS 
Arfi and I. Oh, he is very wise. 
His judgment is as gracious as a child's 
That in the wonderland of its own wisdom 
Imagines nothing baser than itself. 



" We " } 



FEJVRlSy THE WOLF II9 

EGIL 
But I am baser. 

THORDIS 

Hath it proved so ? 

EGIL 

\_After a pauseJ] 

No! 
No ; thanks to you and him and my own pain, 
It shall not prove so. This at last is power 
And innocence ; this — this at last is freedom. 
Now when I clasp your hand I clasp his also — 
My saviour's; now beneath your face, for shrine, 
I will confess my spirit to you both, 
For are you not my gods .? You have created 
My heaven and hell, and builded my path heavenward. 
Now from your eyes nothing — nothing within 
This heart shall be concealed. 

THORDIS 

\_Smili?ig.~\ 

What then is your secret .? 

[ On the edge of the scene, left, unobserved by them, reappears 
the human Shadow.] 



My secret 



EGIL 
\ Slowly rises.'] 



120 FEATRIS, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 

Come, sit with me on this bank, 
And I will be a listening stream, a bird, 
An opening flower, to overhear you. 

\_He follows and sits beside her; the Shadow slowly moves 

toward them.'\ 

EGIL 

But — 

THORDIS 
That thought which falters now behind your lips. 

EGIL 

I have no thought which hides from you. 

\_The Shadow moves between them. Egil starts up with 

a cry.'] 



Again it falls upon me ! 



Again ! 



THORDIS 

What ? 

EGIL 



THORDIS 

What's gone ? 

EGIL 

It is no matter. 



'Tis gone. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 121 

THORDIS 

A surprise ! 

I see : a wedding-day surprise for us. 

EGIL 

No, but a lie. I lied to you. Last night 
I told you I renounced you, but I lied. 

THORDIS 

Egil! 

EGIL 

It was the music, the harp-demon ; 
It blinded and then tempted me ; it lured me 
To obtain my freedom falsely. But to-day, 
This morning when my body fetterless 
Roamed in this wood-side, and the little children 
Climbed over me in laughter, and I too 
Laughed with them, and all nature laughed and echoed 
" Thou art emancipated ! " — I was healed ; 
Then I was healed and now all's well again ; 
All's well ; no harm shall come to him. 

THORDIS 

To whom .? 
I do not understand. 

EGIL 

You have no need ; 
I claim your own assurance. Will you trust me } 

THORDIS 

So well that, now you have put your secret by, 
I will tell mine. 



122 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 

What secret can you have 
For me ? 

THORDIS 

You have been wicked ; so perhaps 
Have I. 

EGIL 

\_Smiltng.~\ 
You! 

THORDIS 

\_Showing her handJ] 
Look ! look there. 

EGIL 

A scar. 

THORDIS 

The mark 
Of fangs. 

EGIL 

What thing has dared to give you pain ? 

THORDIS 

Have you forgot ? 

EGIL 

Ah me ! I had forgot. 
Cannot you, too, forget ? 

THORDIS 

I would not ; that's 
My secret. Yes, this scar is dear to me. 

EGIL 

That sign of blasphemy, of him — the werewolf — 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 1 23 

THORDIS 
Is dear to me. 

EGIL 

Thordis ! 

THORDIS 

I loved the wolf. 
It was a life to nourish and protect, 
A being alien and mysterious, 
Yearning and captive. It was terrible. 
And yet so eager, swift, and passionate 
It fascinated me. It was ignoble. 
Cruel, yet infinite of promise ; cunning, 
Malicious, yet beautifully animate, 
Sublimely animal. 

EGIL 

O pain ! 

THORDIS 

To take it 
Into my bosom, foster its wild growth 
From hour to hour, to watch from day to day 
The fierce light of its eyes glow deeper, milder, 
To nestle it only to set it free — these joys 
Were pangs to me. 

EGIL 

\_Low.'] 

Have pity ! 

THORDIS 

Then it was 

So lordly, so imperious of strength. 



124 FEIVRIS, THE WOLF 

In grace so sinuous, in pride so ardent — 
Who had not been enamoured of it ? 

EGIL 

Cease ! 
It wrought some monstrous spell to make you wanton. 

THORDIS 

If that be wantonness which fain would take 
No joy of loving but the giving joy. 



I 



EGIL 

But for that beast you turned your thoughts from 
Arfi.? 

THORDIS 

You do not understand ; Arfi and I 
Are one ; it needs no murmured wedding vows 
To make us that. But I am beautiful, 
And all who look upon me love to press 
Nearer and touch my gown, and when I pass 
I feel the ruddy mantling of their cheeks 
And the wild admiration start ; and these 
Are joys to Arfi as to me, and we 
Return their love. 

EGIL 

Even so you loved me } 

THORDIS 

No, 
More than all those, for you alone of those 
Had need of me. — And so you have my secret. 
I fear indeed it is a wicked one ; 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 125 

For I have been like a too-doting nurse 
That lets her heart hang backward in regret 
And whispers her loved one, " Grow, but do not leave 
me!" 

EGIL 

For what then have I grown, O gods ? 

THORDIS 

For this : 
To be yourself, and free of that nurse-bondage. 

EGIL 

Free ! but alone, adrift ! Oh, take me back 
Into the bosom of your care. Once more 
Nestle me there, the wild thing ! 

THORDIS 

That once more 
So you might struggle for your freedom ? Nay, 
The wild thing now is dead. 

\_Enter Wuldor, left ; he goes to Egil^ 

WULDOR 

I cannot speak 
With him. When I approached, he fled from me, 
Silent. I called, but both his hands he pressed 
Over his ears, and silently among 
The trees eluded me. 

EGIL 
\Seizing Wuldor' s wrists , speaks huskily^ 

I have not willed this ; 
They cannot lay this crime on me — these gods. 



126 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

For I have annulled it, I have cancelled it. 
Come here, look in my heart ; is it not clean ? 
Woe thou mayest see there, yearning, pain, but not — 
Say, canst thou see there — murder ? Answer not. 
But go ! What will come will come ; what have I 
To do with it ? Go, go, I say. 

\_Extt Wtildor, right, looking darkly.'] 

THORDIS 

You are ill, 
Your gestures — they are wild. 

EGIL 

Why should they not be ? 
The wild thing is not dead, but is exalted. 
Gods, why should we, your hinds, coin and devise 
Dreams of emancipation ! We are quibblers 
And hypocrites, damned, every slave of us. 
To hug our chains in secret. Rather than 
Acknowledge what we are, the mind outwits 
The heart, the heart hoodwinks the mind, the tongue 
Cajoles and counterplots them both, while truth — 
[Breaks into laughter.] 

THORDIS 
Tell me the truth. 

EGIL 

Again } Another version .? 
Why, listen then : I love you ; not in the awful, 
Serene idea of self-sacrifice, 
But passion, which of right demands return 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 12/ 

Of passion, nature's just and ancient barter. 
I want you ; I demand you — all yourself. 
I offer all myself. 

THORDIS 

What of your brother } 

EGIL 

I ask you nothing which he does not ask. 
He offers nothing which I do not offer. 
There was a difference between us once, 
Not now. 

THORDIS 

Hath he not made you what you are } 

EGIL 

Yes, he and you. 

THORDIS 

And in requital now 
You would seduce his bride .'' 

EGIL 

No, not seduce ; 
Demand. Yes, though I seem to rave, I speak 
Love and conviction. Judge me, dear my lady. 
You chose between us brothers when we were 
Contrasted in our souls as some meek bard 
Of pity, with a beast. Look on us now 
Again, before it be too late, and choose 
Between us now. 

THORDIS 

I have chosen once for all. 



128 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

EGIL 

But have you chosen blindly ? 

\Points into the woodJ] 

Do you see, 
By yonder pine, that wild crab-apple tree ? 

THORDIS 

I see a tree just bursting into flower. 

EGIL 

Is not it beautiful ? 

THORDIS 

'Tis ravishing. 
EGIL 

Last winter, had you passed, you might have seen it 
Writhing its frozen limbs there like a thing 
Accurst, all pinched and scrambled by the pangs 
Of screaming winds ; you would have shrunk from it 
Beneath the verdurous pine, in whose sad boughs 
The same winds sung like voices of tuned lyres. 

THORDIS 

It may be so. 

EGIL 

Yet now behold it, now ! 
A pale-rose pyre of fragrance and of flame, 
Wherein, like sacrificial spirits, sit 
The tawny and vermilion birds, and strike 
Their silvery chants in unison, and hung 
Amid the tangled bloom, in murmurous choirs. 
The blazing gold bees shrill their mellow horns. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 129 

Look, Thordis, look again ! If you were Freyja, 
Herself, goddess of spring, which would you choose 
For shelter now, and joy ? 

THORDIS 
[ Gazing at Mm.'] 
Ah me! 

EGIL 

If spring — 

If spring and the sweet south can so transform. 
What cannot love ? Your warmth, your breath, your 

soul. 
Soft on my numbness, my deformity. 
Breathed, and I sprung — a burning tree of bloom — 
Beside you. Have you eyes for flights unseen ? 
Hearing for choirs unheard ? Here, too, beside you 
Fierce swarms of golden fancies work in song 
The fecund pollen of my passion, here 
A thousand bird-wing'd visions nest them down 
Into the heart of me, to chant your praise. 
You that have so transformed me, you repulse me 
Now? 
\_Enter right, in the background, Arfi; he pauses unseen.] 

THORDIS 
Take your eyes from mine. 

EGIL 

You love me ; you 
Who fostered me, the wild thing, love me still. 
My secret scar is on you ; you are mine. 
Not bis. 

K 



130 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 
Oh, leave me ! 

EGIL 

Yet you seize my hand. 

THORDIS 
Leave me, leave me ! 

EGIL 

Yet you take me to your heart. 

THORDIS 

A myriad loves the heart hath, but one mate. 

Once only may the cry of soul and body 

Be answered ; the great need can be but once. 

EGIL 

Now is the great need come. 

THORDIS 

How may we know ? 

EGIL 

I am your being's master. If his soul 
Were listening to us now, I would cry out : 
*' I have outgrown thee, brother. What thou art 
I am and more, for I have wrung from thee 
Thy potent mind, and forged it to my passions 
To make a lordlier instrument. Mine, therefore, 
Not thine, the ordained need of her. Mine ! " 



FEATR/S, THE WOLF 131 

THORDIS 

Love me ! 

\^He kisses her, Arfi moves mto the thicket and disappears, 
Thordis, putting Egil from her, draws a dagger upon 
hers elf. '\ 

Ah, my betrayer ! It is ended. 

EGIL 
\_Seizing the knife from her,'] 

No; 
You shall not choose so. If that name indeed 
Be mine, keep silence now, while I avenge 
The kiss of thy seducer. 

\_As he tur7is the knife upon himself ^ Thordis cries out,] 

THORDIS 
Egil! 

EGIL 

Love! 

\_Springing to her, beside the pool, he recoils.] 

Impending image I persecuting shape ! 
Depart. 

THORDIS 

Alas ! are we both mad } 

EGIL 

Remove 
The prying horror of thine eyes. Not now — 
At this the utmost instant of my joy 
Intrude not now. 



132 FEN-RIS, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 
Whom do you speak to ? 

EGIL 

\Staring past Thordis into the poolJ] 

There ! 

Look, we have murdered him. It comes to tell us ; 

It points at thee, to say thou, too, art guilty. 

We have betrayed and killed him, thou and I. 

See, see ! It kneels and craves our sanction. — Rise, 

Remorseless shadow ! Go ! I give it thee, 

\_He hurls the dagger into the pool. As he staggers back, 
Thordis rests his head on her shoulder?^ 

THORDIS 
Peace, brain and heart ! 

VOICES 
\^Far away, rights sing.^ 

How should the bed, the bridal bed, 

Freyja, be spread ? 
Pine garlands at the foot, rose garlands at the head. 

EGIL 

Is it gone ? 

THORDIS 

Nothing is there. 
Rest, rest, poor dreamer ! 



FEATR/S, THE WOLF 1 33 

THE VOICES 
\_Sing.'] 

What on the maid, the bride and maid, 

Freyja, be laid? 
The rose's innocence, ere those fresh garlands fade. 

EGIL 

Hark ! the bridal virgins ! 

\Thordis shrinks from him.'] 

Stay, Thordis ; now the awful need is come. 
While yet we are alone in the great silence, 
Now, now, before they find it, pale and red. 
Heaped in the path of roses, now — be mine. 

THORDIS 

Freyja, help me ! Freyja, goddess and maiden ! 

EGIL 

His soul descends upon us both, and seals 
This act with blood of sacrifice. His blood 
Our nuptial rite hath reddened. 

THORDIS 

Save me ! 

EGIL 

Hush! 
This is the vernal god, the appalling arm 
That clasped the world i' the primal age, and 

moaned — 
*' Let there be life ! " — Hush, love ; do not you hear 
The stealing saps stir through the forest, feel 



134 FENRIS, THE PVOLF 

The seeking joys of all wild, mating things 
Throb in their blood and ours, their kindred, — 

THORDIS 

\_Breaking from himJ] 

Help! 
Help, Arfi ! 

\_She escapes, right, ififo the wood. As Egil pursues her, there 
steps from the thicket, into his path, Arfi. Egil pauses. '\ 

EGIL 

May the dead be summoned back 
To curse us with forgiveness ? — Spirit, be stern 
And not compassionate. Come in your wounds, 
Fell and disfigured, not benignly thus. 
Oh, not your love — your vengeance ! Not your love ! 

[^Shields his eyes with his arms. As he does so, Arfi, with 
a serene gesture, is about to speak, when from the thicket 
Yorul springs silently out and stabs him. Arfi falls 
motio?iless ; Yorul withdraws. Slowly Egil looks again.'] 

Yea, now thou hast resumed thy murder-garment, 
And hast drawn on thy bridal-robe of wounds. 
And laid thee at my feet in vengeance. Now 
This is indeed thy vengeance — brother ! master ! 
[^Stoops beside the body.] 

VOICES OF THE VIRGINS 
\_Si?zg, near.] 
What o'er the man the maid shall wed, 

Freyja, be shed .-* 
The pine's immortal breath, ere those green boughs 
are dead. 




FENRIS, THE WOLF 135 

\_Starting up, fearful^ Egil hales the body toward the left, but 
having reached the centre pauses, as the laughter of chil- 
dren rises in the way before him. Turning, he is drag- 
ging the body down scene, when the children, scampering 
in, left, with their aprons and baskets full of wild 
flowers, ru7i towards him. Finger on lip, he motions 
them siletice : their laughter and shouts die away^ awed,~\ 

EGIL 

He is asleep ; the bridegroom is asleep. 

Scatter your wild flowers over him. Look, he smiles, 

He'll laugh when he awakes and sees them. — Soft ! 

THE CHILDREN 

[ Whispering, gather in a circle and, pleased as at some game 
of mystery, heap the flowers upon Arfi, and sing low.'\ 

Flowers bring 
And fairy numbers ! 
Sweet Spring 
His spirit cumbers. 
Still be highhole ! still be thrush ! 
Hush ! hush ! 

Now he slumbers. 

\_Treading softly, with covert laughter and ''^ hushes,^'' the 
children steal away. Heaped over the body of Arfi a?id 
completely concealing it, they have left be/wid them a 
great pile of arbutus, violets, and other flowers. So7ne 
of these Egil is replacing more carefully, when the pile 
is shaken from within, a?id up through it rises the form 
^Baldur. Dazzled, Egil kneels^ 



136 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

BALDUR 
Hail, brother ! 

EGIL 

Art thou sunlight, or a voice ? 

BALDUR 

This is the word of Odin ! 

\_Egil sinks prostrate.'] 

If the wolf 
Seduce to his desire his brother's bride. 
He shall be lord with her of heaven and earth 
And hell, and by their passion the serene 
And stablished beacons of the gods shall be 
Eclipsed in night, anarchical and void, 
Where, staggering with lust, the bHnded world 
Reels back to chaos and the primal dark. 

EGIL 
\_Hiding his face ^ 
And if the wolf renounce her ? 

BALDUR 

He shall perish. 
Slain by his own self-mastery, and all 
The spirits of light, freed from that awful dread. 
Shall strew his charnel, singing. 

EGIL 

Ah ! but she — 



FEN-RIS, THE WOLF 137 

BALDUR 

She falters yet ; she hangs upon his will. 
The lure of imperfection is the sin 
Of gods, the lure of godhood that of mortals. 
She wavers still. 

EGIL 

Bright shadow, golden voice, 
Say what thou art. 

BALDUR 

Baldur, the son of Odin. 

EGIL 

[^Starts up^ 
Then I — .? 

BALDUR 

Fenris, the wolf-god ! 
\_He sinks again into the flowers^ and is gone.~\ 

EGIL 

Ah ! the dream ! 
The dream is true ; the truth is visionary. 

\_From the left, two or three of the children return from the 
wood, and stand silent. Frofn the right, the lutes and 
pipes of the bridal procession grow louder, and shortly 
ejiter the virgins, Ingimund, Thordis, Wuldor, and 
others, as Egil still sta?ids lost in soliloquy?^ 

" And there, in slumber, even as mortals dream, 
Slumb'ring, that they are bright, immortal gods, 
You shall be mortals, and shall walk as men, 
Forgetful of your immortality." 



138 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

THORDIS 
Was not he with you, father ? 

INGIMUND 

He went before 
A little space, to greet you first. — My child, 
Why do you cling to me ? 

EGIL 

{^Approaching herJ] 

Goddess and maiden ! 

THORDIS 

He's mad. Save us ! We both are mad. 

INGIMUND 

Thy brother, 
Where is he ? 

EGIL 

Father, he hath gone before 
A little space, but left thy word with me. 

INGIMUND 
My word ? 

EGIL 

The word of truth. 

\_A little girl, movi?tg back some of the flowers, has disclosed 
the dead body of Arfl, blood- stained. '\ 

THE LITTLE GIRL 

He's still asleep. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 139 

THORDIS 

[^Goes to it with a cry.'\ 
Arfi! 

WULDOR 

I thought it, Ingimund ; he's murdered 

INGIMUND 

His bane ! What hand struck this ? 

EGIL 

Lo, I will tell ; 
The dream must end. Thou saidest : He shall perish, 
And all the spirits of light, freed from that dread. 
Shall strew his charnel, singing. 

INGIMUND 

Madman ! Thou — 
YORUL 

\_Ente ring from the thicket?^ 

/murdered him. 

THORDIS 

\Starting up from the body.'\ 
Yorul ! 

YORUL 
^Showing dagger^ 

His blood is here. 

EGIL 
Yet shall the dreamers wake, the truth prevail. 



I40 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

YORUL 
'Twas I ! This hand — 

EGIL 

And shall that hand put out 
The beacons of the gods with primal dark, 
And hurl the blinded world to chaos ? 

THORDIS 

Egil! 
Thou art innocent ! Oh, in this blank of death 
That truth remains. 

EGIL 

\Turning upon Yorul?[ 

Scourge and seductor I 

INGIMUND 

{.To Egil.-] 

Speak ! 
Hath this man done this deed ? 

EGIL 
\_Slowly.~\ 

Yes ; it was Yorul. 
\_Yorul is seized.] 



ACT FOURTH 



ACT IV 
Scene: The rune-stone. 

A white-rose bush, beside it, in bloom ; a flame on the altar ; 
sunset. 

Enter Egil, alone. 

EGIL 

Put it away ? To put all from me — all — 
Or else despoil ! Renounce, or with a kiss 
Consume the bright seduction ! Mar — relinquish, 
In either path, to suffer ; yet to see 
Myself at last for what I am, to know 
The inexorable bars, the nudging rafters. 
The starry lych-gate and the pit of tears 
Of this my soul and penthouse. — And the escape ! 
To know that I — myself the miracle 
I worshipped — am a god, a sovereign lord 
Of nature, powerful to make the bounds 
And marches of the heaven my petty fiefs 
Of mind, — yet what a god ! A clawed usurper, 
That snatches from the shoulders of the gods 
The green and azure cloth of summer-time. 
This human tapestry of spring and harvest 
Star-wrought with sanguine hearts and golden sheaves, 
And tears it, tooth-meal, for a wolf's lair. — This, 

143 



144 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

This also must have challenge : Might not Egil 

Overmaster Fenris ? Can the mind o'ermaster 

The will ? 

[^Supplicating the rune-stone^ 

O mystery, that made us two 
Yet one, resolve thyself and this and seal it ! 
To put all, all away, or with a kiss consume ? 

[Pausing, he breaks a white rose, and holding it near and 
nearer the altar- flame watches it — as though for a sign 
— till it scorches; then snatching it back, extinguishes 
the flame. While he is bending over thics, Thordis 
enters, — in her hands a rope of twined arbutus-flo7vers. 
All in white, she is very pale ; approaching behind Egil, 
she watches over his shoulder the rose petals a7id the 
flame. Suddenly, throwing the rope of arbutus over 
his head, she wiiids it about him. Turning, he drops 
the rose, and they gaze at each other, anguished?^ 

EGIL 
[After a silence.'] 
Why have you left the body ? 

THORDIS 
[Binding his arms down with the blossoms."] 

I have come 
To bring you back in chains to prison. 

EGIL 

Where — 

THORDIS 

I know a dungeon where the dead are not. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 145 

EGIL 
Where — have you left the body ? 

THORDIS 

They are bringing 
Their burden here. 

EGIL 

These flowers ? 

THORDIS 

Arbutus. 

EGIL 

Those ? 
And you could weave of those this chain for me ? 

THORDIS 

Could weave a garland of a winding-sheet ? 
I could ; I did ; and whilst I wove, I heard 
Above my head the small birds singing " Horror," 
And underfoot " Horror " the sweet grass sang ; 
But in my bosom sung, " He loves me." 

EGIL 

Keep 
From me, lest thou be scorched. 

THORDIS 

Was he not gentle. 
Exalted, tender ? Who that saw his smile 
But thought " A star breaks " ? — Now for us all dark, 
A shape of clay. Oh, why should sudden love 
Come like the tempest, and blot out from skies 
Of memory all golden yesterdays } 



146 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

But so it is ; the storm of thee shuts down 
Over my world ; thy lightnings have put out 
His smile. 

EGIL 

Is it not enough that I have spilled 
His blood upon my soul, but must that, more, 
Pollute the whiteness of a goddess' heart 
And desecrate perfection ? 

THORDIS 

[ With a wan smile of pain, drawing him with the arbutus 

toward her.'] 

Come — to prison. 

EGIL 
His blood, I said; did you not hear.? Not Yorul — 

/ murdered him ! 

THORDIS 

You do not understand ; 
It was not you ; 'twas I. 

EGIL 

The hand of Yorul 
Stabbed him, but my intent. 

THORDIS 

You do not ask 
Where I've prepared your dungeon. — Come. 

EGIL 

Too late, 

You precious chains ! I am free. 



FENRIS, THE WOLF 147 

THORDIS 

Thy words again ! 
" Free, but alone, adrift ! " I hear thee still, 
Forever, calling in thy need of me — 
*' O take me back, the wild thing ! " Come ! — I take 

thee; 
I nestle thee once more, a captive. Come, 
Alone no more ! 

EGIL 

It is too late. 'Tis he, 
Your god and lover, whom they are bringing back 
To claim you. 

THORDIS 

\_Clinging to him.~\ 

Who shall claim me from your side .? 

\_Enter a procession of folk, virgins, and childi^en, bear- 
ing a low bier, covered with a cloth of green, behind 
which walks Yorul, bound. Ingimund, who enters 
first, ascends^ by the stone steps^ the altar, before whicli 
the bier is set down. While this is being borne, the 
dirge continues^ 

VIRGINS AND CHILDREN 
[ Chant.~\ 

Heiri ! heiri ! heiri ! 
Othin ok ^sir ! 

[Ingimund signs to a priest to loosen the hands of Yotul, 
who stands in front of the bier.~\ 



148 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

INGIMUND 

Give him the cup. The murderer shall drink 
The bane of murder. 

\_The priest hands to Yorul a cup, which, as he raises it 

quietly to his lips, is wrenched from his hand by Egil, 

who embraces hi7n.'] 

EGIL 

My deliverer ! — 
Brother, awake ! I give thee back thy bride. 

\_0n the bier, the green cloth is thrown back, and Baldur, 
rising, steps upon the altar. Thordis gazes upon hitn.'] 

This is my heart's desire — take it ! 'tis yours. 

BALDUR 

Freyja ! 

THORDIS 
\_With a wild cry, going to him.'] 
Baldur! 

THE FOLK 
\_Prosti'ating the7?is elves.'] 

The gods ! the gods ! 

\Thordis and Ingimund, by Baldui^s side, are transfigured, 
and a hedge of flowers and fla7?ie springs up before 
the altar, encircling the three.~\ 

EGIL 
\_Apart, drinks from the cup.] 

To freedom ! 
\_Baldur and Tlwrdis, clinging to each other, look at Egil.] 



FENR/S, THE WOLF 149 

YORUL 
\Starmg at Baldur, speaks to Egil.'\ 
Whom, lord, dost thou name " brother " ? 

EGIL 

Him — and thee. 
Both, for through me henceforward you are kindred. 
Yorul [ my men, my liegemen ! you — you also 
Conceived in chains and born in passion, you 
Also, who from an immemorial brute 
Rage for emancipation, oh, forget not 
Your brother Fenris, him who was brought forth 
A glorious miscarriage of the gods, 
To be exalted to a man. 

\_He sinks upon the bier.~\ 

The chains ! 
Yorul — the chains ! 

\_Striving to break the arbutus links, which hang loosely upon 
him, he falls back."] 

YORUL 
Master ! 



ODIN 

The wolf is tamed. 

[/« sudden fire, the gods disappear, leaving deep twilight. 
Vague, the body of Egil lies dead on the bier. 



150 FENRIS, THE WOLF 

Beside if, amid the prostrate folk, rising alone, stands 
Yoriil, with arms upreached toward the rune-stone. '\ 

THE VIRGINS AND CHILDREN 
\_Singing.'\ 

Heiri ! heiri ! heiri ! 
Balthur ok Freyja ! 

\_Far offy the ice-crown of the volcano flushes in the 

afterglow.'] 



FINIS 



1 



fR SI W^i^ 



